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Journeys Beyond Belief
“I am more than my physical body. Because I am more than physical matter, I can perceive that which is greater than the physical world.”
— from the Gateway affirmation
The three books written by Robert Monroe have changed for the better—are still changing—countless lives. They have offered relief from fear that we may be ill mentally or physically, they have given us a map by which to navigate realms of experience far outside of the conventional; they have provided a perspective on physical life and death that demolishes any substantive barrier between the two. Through his writings Bob has shone a bright light on the reality of life as a continuum. He did this in a way that contemporary minds can easily grasp.
Chapter 1 in Journeys Out of the Body (1971) contains the book's raison d'être, evoking both a positive future and the negative view of paranormal experiences generally held by mid-century America—
The primary purposes for the release and publication of the material contained here are (1) that through dissemination as widely as possible some other human being—perhaps just one—may be saved from the agony and terror of trial and error in an area where there have been no concrete answers; that he may have comfort in the knowledge that others have had the same experiences; that he will recognize in himself the phenomenon and thus avoid the trauma of psychotherapy, or at the worst, mental breakdown and commitment to a mental institution; and (2) that tomorrow or in the years to come, the formal, accepted sciences of our culture will expand their horizons, concepts, postulates and research to open wide the avenues and doorways intimated herein to the great enrichment of man's knowledge and understanding of himself and his complete environment.
Far Journeys (1986), published 15 years after Journeys Out of the Body, finds Bob at the helm of a burgeoning research and educational organization. The success of Journeys Out of the Body resulted, in part, in an influx of readers eager to learn with the tools and technology available at The Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences. Using his own map as a guide, Bob developed week-long programs designed to train participants in the techniques of consciousness exploration.
Also during the interval between books, Bob experienced a dramatic shift, an evolution, in the quality and content of his OBEs.
From Far Journeys—
Beginning in the seventies I began to feel a frustration, a limitation in my out-of-body activities. It is hard for some people to believe, I suppose, but such travels actually became boring. The early excitement had long passed....
In the spring of 1972, a decision was made that provided the answer. The limiting factor was my conscious mind. Therefore, if OOBE decisions were left up to that part of me, as they had been, I would remain just as I was. I was too much in control—this left-brain "I." What would happen if I turned this decision-making process over to my total self (soul?), who was purportedly conversant with such activities.
[The following night Bob put it into practice.] ...I detached from the physical and floated free. I said in my conscious mind that the decision to do is to be made by my entire self. After waiting for what seemed only a few seconds, there was a tremendous surge, a movement, an energy in that familiar spatial blackness, and there began for me an entire new era in my out-of-body activities. Since that night, my nonphysical experiences have been almost totally due to this procedure.
The interval between JOOB and Far Journeys saw the development of the first group training programs in which partiipants were introduced to Focus levels. Pehaps as a result of having begun using the Gateway affirmation before each session, Explorers, during lab sessons and "after several years of finding only barenness"—
...encountered intelligent beings who were more or less willing to communicate—and could do so...The effect upon us was overwhelming.
Turning beliefs and Unknowns into Knowns became a practice that Bob followed and strongly encouraged. “Go and find out for yourself,” was his familiar admonishment to program participants. Only through focused intellect and a driving curiosity can we personally experience—and Know—the truth of our unlimitedness.
from Ultimate Journey (1994)—
Fear is the great barrier to human growth....As we grow older we learn more and more fears so that by the time we reach maturity we—or most of us—are loaded with them. We have grown physically, but our real growth, the realization of our true potential, has been sadly impeded.
Unknowns create fears. We may fear the darkness because we don't know what's there. A physical pain may create fear because we don't know what it may imply. When these Unknowns become Knowns the fears diminish and disappear and we are able to cope with whatever confronts us.
...The highways and byways of out-of-body adventures and exploration are broad and varied, for the most part beyond ordinary time-space concepts. We can understand only that portion which relates directly to the Earth Life System. We may attempt to report the rest of it—and it seems limitless—but we have no acceptable or compatible baseline of knowledge and experience to do this accurately. The problem lies in trying to understand it and to translate what you find—to bring it back. Never be surprised when you return to the physical to find tears running down your cheeks.
What has happened is that you have gone off the edge of the Known map, and have returned with some previously important Unknowns now converted to Knowns. You may or may not convince others of this reality. Most do not try; the individual knowledge is enough.
Think how such knowledge—not belief or faith—would affect your own life pattern; the knowledge that you are indeed more than your physical body, that you do indeed survive physical death. These two Unknowns converted to Knows, with no conditions or contingencies—what a difference that would make!
What a difference it does make.
“If you expect to die…you will be disappointed”
PMH Atwater, LHD PhD (Hon.), guest speaker at TMI's Lifeline programs, is one of the original researchers in the field of near-death studies, having begun her work in 1978. She has written ten books on her findings, her tenth—Near-Death Experiences, The Rest of the Story—being the final wrap-up of her theory about brain shift/spirit shift, straight talk about transformations of consciousness and the future of the human race.
Excerpted from We Live Forever: The Real Truth About Death by PMH Atwater —
I can say without hesitation that you encounter far more than you could possibly imagine when you die. Your previous beliefs do not necessarily determine what that is. Life is not as limiting as you may have thought; neither is death.
When I asked the people I had sessions with what death and dying felt like, here’s their reply, given as a summary of their collective voices:
HOW IT FEELS TO DIE
Any pain to be suffered comes first. Instinctively and automatically you fight to live. It is inconceivable to the conscious mind that any other reality can possibly exist besides the earth world of matter, bounded by time and space. We are used to living here. We have been trained since birth to live and thrive in the earth plane. We know ourselves to be ourselves by the eternal stimuli we receive. Life tells us who we are and we accept its telling; that, too, is instinctive and automatic.
Your body goes limp. Your heart stops. No more air flows in or out. You lose sight, feeling, and movement, although the ability to hear goes last. Identity ceases. The “you” that you once were becomes only a memory, a dream.
There is no pain at the moment of death. Only peaceful silence. Calm. Quiet. But you still exist.
It is easy not to breathe; easier, in fact, and infinitely more natural.
The biggest surprise for most people in dying is to realize that death does not end life. Whether darkness or light comes next or some kind of event, be it positive, negative, or somewhere in between, expected or unexpected, the biggest surprise of all is to realize you are still you. You can still think; you can still remember; you can still see, hear, move, reason, wonder, feel, question, and tell jokes—if you wish.
You are still alive, very much alive. You are more alive than when you were last born. Only the way of all this is different, different because you no longer wear a dense body to filter and amplify the various sensations you had once regarded as the only valid indicators of what constitutes life. You had always been taught that in order to live you had to wear a body.
If you expect to die when you die, you will be disappointed.
The only thing dying does is help you release, slough off, and discard the “jacket” you once wore (more commonly referred to as a body). When you die, you lose your body. That is all there is to it. Nothing else is lost.
You are not your body. It is just something you wear for a while, because living in the earth plane is infinitely more meaningful and more involved if you are encased in its trappings and subject to its rules.
WHAT DEATH IS
There is a step-up of energy at the moment of death, an increase in speed as if you are suddenly vibrating faster than before.
Using radio as an analogy, this speed-up is comparable to having lived all your life at a certain radio frequency when suddenly someone or something comes along and flips the dial. That flip shifts you to another wavelength. The original frequency where you once existed is still there. It did not change. Everything is still the same as it always was. Only you changed, only you speeded up or slowed down to allow entry into the next radio frequency up or down the dial.
As is true with all radios and radio stations, there can be bleed overs or distortions of transmission signals due to interference patterns. Normally, most shifts along the dial are fast and efficient; but occasionally one can run into interference, perhaps from a strong emotion, a sense of duty, or a need to fulfill a vow or keep a promise. This interference enables frequencies to coexist for a few seconds, days, or even years.
This may well explain the existence of hauntings and ghosts. But, sooner or later, every vibrational frequency will seek out or be nudged to where it belongs.
You fit your particular spot on the dial by your speed of vibration. You cannot coexist forever where you do not belong. Who can say how many spots there are on the dial or how many frequencies there are to inhabit? No one knows for certain. You shift frequencies in dying. You switch over to life on another wavelength. You are still a spot on the dial, but you move up or down a notch or two.
You don’t die when you die. You shift your degree of consciousness and change your speed of vibration. That is all death is. A shift.
50 Ways to Leave Your Body
At The Monroe Institute's 2013 Professional Seminar, Diane Waybright entertains the crowd of consciousness explorers with a heartfelt and comical rendition of "50 Ways to Leave Your Body." Lyrics by Franceen King and Scott Taylor.
Starlines – A deep space journey to self-discovery
by Elena Gallenberger
March, 2013
What do stars, planets, nebulae, pulsars and black holes have to do with each of us and who we really are? The Monroe Institute’s program, Starlines is an energetic and fascinating 6-day journey into meditative exploration of the deep space of our universe and how it connects with the inner space of our total selves. It invites us to open ourselves to the mind-bending perspective of the vastness of outer space and the miracles that dwell there.
My husband Joe, a facilitator of TMI programs for 20+ years, and I joined a small group of 7 other explorers at Roberts Mountain Retreat one cold, rainy day a few days before the vernal equinox to embark upon a most unusual voyage with Dr. Franceen King, the creator of Starlines, at the helm of Voyager 8, our communal “spaceship” for this week of exploration.
I’d been hearing wonderful things for years from TMI friends who’d participated in the program, which has been running since 2003 and had completed over 30 journeys, but one thing or another prevented us from attending until March 2013. Finally, it seemed that the stars were in proper alignment – our kids were off on their own and we were turning to a new chapter of our lives together. We had never experienced a TMI program together as participants. This was new territory for us in more than one sense of the word and we were excited!
New territory turned out to be a major understatement. Neither of us was well-versed in astronomy, except in very lay terms – we knew the major constellations, had heard about some of the new telescopes around the globe, certainly were familiar with the famous Hubble images, and, of course, being moderate Trekkies, were in the know about wormholes and supernovas, at least from a sci-fi perspective. We weren’t prepared for the information-dense, fascinating “Astronomy 101 and Beyond” education that Franceen had in store for us. And here I thought we were going on vacation!
On the first day, we learned that in the course of 90 years, mankind has expanded their awareness of the heavens from thinking of the universe as our Milky Way galaxy to now knowing that our physical universe encompasses up to 400,000 billion galaxies with much of that new knowledge attained in just the past decade. When we look at the fact that Voyager 1 has been traveling through our solar system – which is just one star of billions in our galaxy - since 1978 at 35,000 miles per hour and is JUST reaching the (outer) limits of our sun’s family of planets, and the Hubble telescope has detected galaxies that are 13.7 BILLION light years away -- I don’t know about you, but I felt an aneurism coming on just trying to wrap my mind around these facts.
In order to be a participant in Starlines, one must be a graduate of Gateway, Lifelines and Exploration 27 – for good reason. We progressed very rapidly from a reset of Focus 15 and 21 to Focus 27, where we all met up at the “TMI There Crystal”. This became our touching base point throughout the program, although most of our time was spent in the very cosmic levels of Focus 34/35 and beyond in Focus 42 and 49.
Many of us had some wonderful experiences back in F-27 such as perceiving group members as glowing orbs and lights. I had a beautiful vision of the group morphing into a sphere of light and heard the words “energetic spaceship” as we began to move above the crystal, whose points turned into a perfectly balanced docking station upon which our ball of light spacecraft settled itself. I thought, “Wow, that’s pretty awesome and it’s just the first day!”
As we progressed through the week, Franceen expertly guided us through a fast-paced balance of Hemi-Sync exercises and what she referred to as “Ground School” where we learned ever-more mind-blowing astronomy facts. The week was peppered with images from the big telescopes such as Very Large Array, ALMA, Keck, Kitt Peak, etc. Some of these images showed hundreds of galaxies in one image! It was fascinating to see how various cosmic bodies show up in different wave lengths such as visual light, infrared, x-ray, etc.
In the exercises, we progressed to Focus 34/35 where we made contact with our total being, or what Bob referred to as his “I There”. This was easy for me for I’d had a very vivid experience in a previous program of being in touch with my whole being and saw it as a honeycomb, with each cell of the honeycomb being a different aspect of myself – both in what we think of as past/future lives, and in aspects of myself in different dimensions of reality. So, this felt pretty homey to me! Focus 34/35 became our gathering place as we boarded Voyager 8 – our spacecraft for our explorations.
By Tuesday morning we were ready for our first trip to Focus-42. Several of us experienced a sense of disintegration of our molecules during our first visit. This was definitely uncharted territory for those of us at Starlines for the first time! Once we started these intensely deep explorations, many of the exercises included touching base quickly with the Earth Core Crystal. Franceen’s expert guidance while creating this program was very clear about every aspect of her process. Given how high we were all getting up in F-42, I thought a quick touchdown to Earth Core was a very good piece of advice! With every exercise, we moved further and further out into the depths of space, exploring our I-There Clusters, nebulae and pulsars, getting higher and higher in our energy as we went.
People were having some pretty phenomenal experiences throughout the week. As we went further and deeper, the experiences became more and more cosmic, from contact with other civilizations in the universe to one my personal favorites. On Wednesday during a free flow F-42, I asked who I was in relation to the cosmos. I immediately began to feel myself expand – like a gaseous substance – and to fill space and everything in it. The universe morphed into what looked like a snow globe – an orb filled with endless points of light and I immediately felt myself fill that. As my energy was expanding to fill this orb, suddenly I sensed more and more of these bubbles, all grouped together. I continued expanding until my energy filled the entirety of these countless orbs which then began to flow in a never-ending river of sparkling light. A clear download came into my awareness at this point that each one of these “bubbles” was a universe unto itself and that everyone and everything is a part of ALL OF IT, world without end.
After that experience, I felt I’d certainly gotten my money’s worth and was feeling pretty full. But, our journey continued to Focus-49. Well, truly, things couldn’t get much more awesome, could they? Franceen’s guidance obviously thought, they could! As we continued our journey into the deep space of our universe, it had become very clear that this whole week was really a journey into the deep space of our whole being – AS ABOVE, SO BELOW. Bob Monroe had once observed that his I-There cluster was bonded to other I-There clusters – like the honeycomb image I had seen. Sometimes, he’d perceive that a chunk of the honeycomb would disappear. Noticing an aperture, he moved through it into a great flow of energy. A voice stopped him and told him he could go no further. It asked “what gifts do you bring, little one?” Not knowing how to answer, the voice told him he needed to go back because he had not yet gathered enough of his parts. He realized the importance of reclaiming aspects of yourself in order to go deeper and deeper into self-knowledge and self-realization.
There was no doubt that most, if not all of us, were rapidly integrating parts of our whole being as we traveled through the depths of space in Voyager 8 – energetically joined, not only as our little group of 9, but with every other soul who had taken this journey in the past and would in the future. During a Focus-49 exercise, I asked what I needed most to know at this time. I again felt myself expanding, as before, only this time, I also felt myself contracting to a sub-atomic level at the same time. As I hung out in this sensation of simultaneous expansion and contraction, I realized that it was one and the same! It came to me to ask, “What about all those universes that I saw in my earlier meditation. Are they in various dimensions, like alternate realities?” I immediately received a reply – “No, those are all in the same dimension you currently reside in.” I was then shown that all through the space these countless universes exist in are endless more universes in more dimensions that we can count. The truly incredible thing about this is that everyone and everything exists in all of them. That, and more is how amazing we are!
As we expressed our gratitude for the time spent together this week, it became crystal clear to me that the explorations of our group during these cold and rainy March days on a beautiful mountaintop in rural Virginia were one small but important step in the journey towards wholeness – for each of us as individuals, and for all of us collectively as sparks of the ALLNESS of creation. This is important work, indeed. I’m in deep gratitude to Bob Monroe, the creator of Hemi-Sync, Franceen King for listening to her guidance in the creation of this exemplary and life-changing program, Starlines, and to The Monroe Institute, for creating safe space for all of us to continue our journey towards self-actualization and wholeness.
The Magic of Flight—In- and Out-of-Body
It's no coincidence that, generally speaking, those attracted to The Monroe Institute are also fans of flight. From Icarus's wings to airplanes, hang gliders, jet packs, and manned space flight, the human desire to fly free and unencumbered, as during out-of-body adventures, is strong.
You could say that Kermit Weeks, lifelong OBE practitioner, veteran of multiple TMI programs, medal-winning aerobatic pilot, builder and collector of airplanes, and champion of dreaming big is a poster boy for both modes of travel. Add that to his irrepressible can-do attitude and intimate relationship with Guidance, and you've got someone who reaches for the stars and grabs right onto them.
When we heard the story of how Kermit acquired the rare and coveted Howard Hughes Sikorsky S-43, we knew we had to share it with you. There's no better way to do that than through Kermit's own words and images.
From Kermit's Blog, March 24, 2013:
Last November ended a very long quest to acquire a very rare and valuable Sikorsky S-43 that was originally owned by Howard Hughes! Howard purchased it in 1937 to fly around the world in an attempt to set a new record. Unfortunately, CAA approval delays, the onset of WWII, and the arrival of a faster airplane forced him to set the Sikorsky to the side and use a Lockheed 14. In 1938 he beat the existing world record by flying around the world in less than four days (91 hours) and enjoyed a ticker-tape parade through New York City for his efforts!
After the War got underway, he was forced to sell the airplane to the government for the war effort and was in the process of doing so, as soon as he completed some water testing with it for the HK-1 (Spruce Goose) project. Due to a miscalculation in weight and balance, the airplane was involved in a water-landing accident that sent it to the bottom of Lake Meade, killing two and almost killing Howard. He paid to have it salvaged, apparently got the title back, and spent A LOT of money rebuilding it. After the war, he used it to fly many of his starlet girlfriends around. He last flew it in 1952 where it then sat for decades in a Houston hangar under guard.
To my knowledge, there are only three S-43’s left in the world. Howard’s, a Pearl Harbor veteran owned by the Smithsonian, and a static one at the Pima County Air Museum.
I first saw the airplane at the Oshkosh Fly-In in 1994 while demonstrating my four-engine Short Sunderland flying boat. I couldn’t help but make a mental note that, one day, I would love to acquire it!
And . . . who wouldn’t?
Fast-forward from 1994 to 2006 where I was attending the Monroe Institute in Virginia. It was my third of ten programs studying out-of-body experiences and exploring worlds within myself with sound technology. One day I will publish a book of my journey’s called The Journey Never Ends! (In case you’re wondering . . . no, it did not involve any drugs and, for the record . . . I’ve never done any recreational drugs in my life!) In one exercise, we were briefed to “go meet other people.” To my surprise, Howard Hughes showed up and during a short conversation he said he, “knew I was interested in his Sikorsky S-43 and would HELP ME GET IT!”
The person that had acquired the airplane from the Hughes Company and restored it back to flying condition was Ron Van Kregten, who purchased it in the early 1980′s but had since passed away. Several years after my Monroe experience, I made a point to go visit the airplane south of Houston, TX with the pilot and the agent. It was now for sale but the price was waaaaay beyond my ability to afford at the time.
There was a spare wing for the airplane in California that I later went to see. There, I met the executor of the estate, who just happened to be the brother of the widow, who had also since passed. I made a point to tell the executor my grand vision for Fantasy of Flight in the hopes it might help gain some ground in acquiring the plane. I also told him about my experience with Howard Hughes at the Monroe Institute and that, if it was meant to be, he should, “Look for a sign!” I had no idea what form this might come in, if at all, but felt compelled at the time that I was supposed to mention this. I got the names of the heirs and later sent them autographed copies of my first children’s book along with some other information about Fantasy of Flight.
Fast-forward four more years to September 2012. I was invited to Houston for a press conference for the Wings Over Houston Airshow, where I was being honored as the 2012 recipient for the Lloyd P. Nolen Lifetime Achievement Award. I made it a point to reconnect with the agent selling the airplane and we drove down to see it. It had not flown in seven years and needed work. The engines and props had been overhauled but were off the plane. The economy had since tanked and had been in recession for several years.
Another overseas party was in the process of making an offer with the intent of taking the airplane overseas as an investment. Probably for good. None of us wanted to see that and, within a month, I found a way to come up with an offer that made sense for both of us. We cut a deal.
I couldn’t believe it. Whether anyone believes that Howard helped me acquire the plane or not . . . one thing was for certain . . . I was now the proud owner of his Sikorsky!
Last January (2013), with several of my aircraft guys in tow, we visited the airplane in Houston with the intent to see what it was going to take to make the aircraft ferriable for a flight back to Florida. After inspecting it for several hours, we realized we were going to spend a lot of time doing repairs, put the airplane at risk flying it home, only to take it apart once we got there to do it right. It didn’t make sense. I made the decision to take it apart in Houston and truck it home.
If you’re interested, here’s a link to a Youtube clip we did of our trip –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Hj_KcE7_M
At this point, the story of the Howard connection could have easily ended. But it didn’t . . . and soon got even MORE bizarre. The information to follow, I only recently became aware of.
While out of town on a trip, the executor of the Van Kregten estate happened to be in Florida for a wedding and stopped by to drop off the logbooks. Remember, this was the brother of the widow and the person I told to “look for a sign” if somehow I was meant to end up with the airplane. When he stopped by, one of my aircraft guys showed him around Fantasy of Flight. At the end of his tour he said he wanted to share a story about his involvement with the airplane and what he knew about how the previous owner came to acquire it, which I followed up on and talked to him directly. This is what he told me -
Ron Van Kregten, the owner, was a pilot and an avid car collector. In the late 1970’s and into the early 1980’s he had a reoccurring dream. In this dream, he said a man, that he thought could have been Howard Hughes, beckoned him to, “Look at this plane!” In another dream, he was told to “Buy it!” Some time later, he was thumbing through a magazine and saw an advertisement for Howard’s Sikorsky S-43, which was now for sale by the Hughes company. IT WAS THE SAME PLANE HE HAD BEEN SHOWN IN HIS DREAMS!
He bought it.
Ron and pilot Jess Bootenhoff got the Sikorsky flying with a crew in Houston and at some point flew it to the Watsonville, CA airshow in 1992 and to Oshkosh in 1994. That was one of the years I had my four-engine Short Sunderland Flying Boat there. We tried to arrange to hook up and fly together in the fly-by pattern but, unfortunately, they had an engine problem.
In 2008, I came to visit him (the executor) in California to look at the spare wing and express my interest in acquiring the plane. This would have been about two years after my experience with Howard at the Monroe Institute and my initially visiting the Sikorsky in Houston. He remembered me telling him about my experience at the Monroe Institute with Howard and the comment that he was going to “help me acquire the plane.” He also remembered me telling him that, “If it was meant to be, he should look for a sign!” (At this point, I knew nothing about Van Kregten’s dreams or the experience of the executor to follow.)
Eventually the executor’s sister (Ron’s widow) passed away and the cars were sold off. The only thing left was the airplane, which had not been kept up and now needed a lot of work. The executor flew to Houston to come up with a plan of how to dispose of the airplane and settle the estate. At some point, he found himself sitting in the airplane in the Houston hangar wondering what he should do. (He mentioned that he meditated and had also, like me, had previous out-of-body experiences.) In the plane, in a meditative state, with BOTH EYES OPEN, he “reached out” to his dead sister and brother-in-law for some guidance. All of a sudden the airplane began to “glow inside” and there, sitting in front of him in the airplane . . . was his DEAD BROTHER-IN-LAW facing him with a smile . . . AND a tall man wearing a hat facing away . . . that he sensed was HOWARD HUGHES!
He took this as a sign that I WAS TO END UP WITH THE AIRPLANE!
As a side story, during the executor’s tour of Fantasy of Flight, he took some pictures of his visit and downloaded them onto his laptop. He mentioned to me that, during his tour, he noticed “lots of spirits” around the place! Later, when he went to show his friends the pics of Fantasy of Flight on his laptop, they were all “zapped.” He remembered they were still on the camera SD card but when he went to check, they were gone as well! During the wedding, he took lots of pictures on the same SD card and later when he went to download them to his laptop, the Fantasy of Flight pictures were both ON HIS LAPTOP AND THE SD CARD!
He told me, “He felt the spirits of Fantasy of Flight had been playing with him by removing and adding back the photos!” It was then that I told him we’ve known the Fantasy of Flight was crawling with spirits for years and, so much so, we’ve done over a dozen “Night Flight” Paranormal investigations with the paying public with great results!
He told my employee after his tour that he felt comfortable with his decision to sell the airplane to me and realized that Howard’s Sikorsky “ended up where it was meant to be!”
How’s that for pretty cool and bizarre?
Welcome to my world!
Kermit—
______________________________________________________________
Bonus photo: Kermit with Franceen King at Fantasy of Flight
From Kermit's Blog of May 14, 2009
Starlines Achieves Ten Stellar Years!
When residential trainer Franceen King proposed the creation of a new program using the physical universe as a guide to the inner-verse through exploring Focus levels 35 through 49, TMI gave her the green light to develop the project. Thus, Starlines was born. The first program was launched in 2003.
I don't remember exactly when I became a stargazer. I suppose it was long before my experience in this embodiment. I do recall, however, that one of my first spiritual "epiphanies" this time around came from reflecting on the night skies in California when I was about five years old.
—Franceen King, "Following the Starlines"
Starlines is a program for graduates of Exploration 27® who possess a burning passion for exploration and Self-discovery, an unquenchable curiosity, and an enduring love and respect for the Life Force in all of its expression.
TMI is thrilled to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this popular and powerful program.
In a brief span of years, space photography has evolved from revealing distant black and white objects to the stunningly colored nebulae, intimate planetary portraits, and deep field images we see today. Aided by hundreds of such images from the space telescopes, and sound translations of radiation from various celestial bodies (the true Music of the Spheres), Starlines participants collectively journey into inter-dimensional frontiers, awakening past and future memories associated with these distant energy systems.
"Through the Starlines process, we came to a profound understanding of the aphorism 'As above, so below.' We also discovered the truth of the beginning of the affirmation, 'I am much more than my physical body…' and human energy. Starlines delivers as a path to liberation and a portal opening into true Kosmic Consciousness." [Starlines participant Gary D. Chaikin, Starlines Delivers,]
Franceen first met Bob Monroe in 1977. He was speaking at a Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship conference in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Over the years their relationship developed as Franceen began training a variety of TMI programs. Most of her interaction with Bob was in the employee lounge behind the kitchen at the Nancy Penn Center, where he would occasionally join her while program participants were in their CHEC units or on break. Bob liked to bounce ideas off of other people. Franceen was present as well during the last week of Bob's life when she witnessed a profound healing exchange between him and Barbara Brennan. [See "The Long View: Franceen King"] In part, it is Franceen's personal relationship with Bob, and her respect for him as a "mapper of consciousness states," that helped guide her in developing Starlines, and later, Starlines II.
Starlines became a hit. As it gained popularity TMI began receiving reports and other feedback from participants. In 2006 a formal study was conducted by TMI's then research director, Skip Atwater. From the abstract, "Results of this study indicate that using Hemi-Sync® exercises in conjunction with outer-space telescopic research to provide a launch pad, Starlines successfully uses inner space—consciousness itself—to explore outer space."
What participants have to say:
My spiritual growth during Starlines felt exponential, as I experienced firsthand the cosmic consciousness, identifying with our galaxy and beyond. I credit TMI programs for my decision to pursue a degree in transpersonal studies, to further my formal education in the consciousness field.
by Andrea T. Berger, Focus 12 Summer/Fall 2006
Starlines is an energetic and fascinating 6-day journey into meditative exploration of the deep space of our universe and how it connects with the inner space of our total selves....With every exercise, we moved further and further out into the depths of space, exploring our I-There Clusters, nebulae and pulsars, getting higher and higher in our energy as we went....People were having some pretty phenomenal experiences...
From "Starlines – A deep space journey to self-discovery"
by Elena Gallenberger, March, 2013
I recently attended Starlines after a twelve year absence from The Monroe Institute. It was an amazing magical experience. Even after all those years it was easy to reset the Focus levels up to 34/35 that I had previously experienced and move on to F42 and F49. Franceen King was a master at facilitating our group in exploring the vast non-physical universe and in reclaiming various aspects of ourselves. I've enjoyed all of the programs I've taken at TMI, but this is now undoubtedly my favorite.
— Susan Taylor
Starlines remains on of my all-time favorite courses at TMI. We explored both the inner and outer worlds, and my experiences helped set the stage for my continuing contact with extra-terrestrials. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
— Vic Contoski
The Starlines programs are so popular in Japan that we have conducted six Starlines and four Starlines II in Japanese, so far....A significant number of people enroll in Gateways simply because they want to eventually attend Starlines. Many participants repeat both Starlines and Starlines II.
There are so many reasons for the popularity:
1. a lot of people simply want to experience high focus states (F42, F49, F49+, Stargate).
2. some people want to know their origins, where they came from...more about their I-There and I-There Cluster.
3. some want to experience a larger perspective and/or oneness.
4. some want to meet higher level beings, ETs and their Cluster Council.
Many participants ask, "When will we have Starlines III?'"
— Mas Sakamoto, TMI residential trainer, Japan
The most moving experience of the week came with a past life experience as a sojourner on a different world, that led me to profoundly remember why I love being a part of the Earth experience – memories and feelings that have stayed with me to this day.
— Mitch Weber
Starline have teaches me only wonders and how everything is operating!...It's winderf experience just by looking at as a big picture our galaxy can be itself a portal to Stargate! Omg I love this you have no idea! 
— Zana Paradise
Wow! Starlines is an amazing program for expanding experiential awareness of the vast physical universe as well as the vastness of one's consciousness. I feel that being exposed to Starlines will deepen my PK, healing, and manifesting abilities, given that for this work we pull in the highest energies we can to empower these creations. 5 star recommendation!
— Joe Gallenberger, TMI residential trainer, creator of the MC Squared program
Happy Anniversary, Starlines!
Image Credit: Molecular Cloud Barnard 68 FORS Team 8.2-meter VLT Antu, ESO
