At a recent dinner with friends, the conversation turned to God. Someone said that if you feel restrained by an old man in a white beard who judges you and sends you to heaven or hell, you need a bigger concept of God. That need for an expanded perspective also informs what we do at the Monroe Institute.

We see that, in the current environment, people need a bigger concept of self. Founder Robert Monroe emphasized that message, saying, “You are more than your physical body.” Sometimes people don’t know what he meant. What I’ve come to discover after 34 years as a program trainer and almost one year as Monroe’s executive director is that we as human beings exist in both the physical and nonphysical realms, at all levels and all dimensions, all the time.

The beauty of the Monroe technique is that we can enter the nonphysical universe at a particular Focus level and that Focus level will morph according to our intention ...

We focus our conscious awareness in one particular level while in our physical bodies, resonating with the vibration of the physical universe. Once we experience other levels, we can choose to focus our attention on multiple levels of existence. That’s the beauty of Bob’s message. He called them Focus levels and assigned them numbers for the sake of convenience and to avoid the baggage that comes with verbal labels.

Focus levels are driven by our intention to experience certain things or to acquire certain knowledge. The beauty of the Monroe technique is that we can enter the nonphysical universe at a particular Focus level and that Focus level will morph according to our intention to know, in the moment, that which we desire.

Bob pointed us in the direction of “more than physical” and gave us the tools to explore what that means. Our concept of self is always growing. We must evolve or cease to exist. You come to Monroe with a conscious or unconscious desire to live life from new perspectives gained by what you’ve learned. The Monroe Institute is following suit—growing into a bigger concept of itself.

I love Bob’s invective to “go out and explore and tell us what you find.” The bigger you get, the more you have to offer.

As we progress through this new year, we are examining the truth of our expanding self-concept and getting a feel for what that might mean. We’re exploring new methods of “getting it out there” and doing it well. (The new website, which launches this month, is one example.) We are growing and discovering for ourselves what can work. The idea of continuous improvement, gaining new wings as people feel empowered to experience and give back.

In my previous blog, I talked about technology with a big “T.” The Monroe Institute has a sophisticated big T. It offers a place to grow and find your clan, to expand your self-concept within a safe and supportive context. I love Bob’s invective to “go out and explore and tell us what you find.” The bigger you get, the more you have to offer.

If I had to pick one New Year’s wish for you, it would be to start this new decade with a desire to explore ALL of what you are and tell us what you find. In 2020—here’s to seeing yourself more clearly, and sidestepping as much dogma as you can, in order to better understand your multidimensional self.

As Albert Einstein famously said, “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

What’s your perfect vision?