Time is a slippery term. The Oxford English Dictionary gives over 350 distinct uses of the word, so there is no really clear answer to the question, “What is time?”
When I’m attending a program at The Monroe Institute, I find that time both stretches and contracts over the course of the week.
At first, there appears to be all the time in the world. On Monday morning I’m asking myself, “Has it really only been one full day?” This is especially true in a graduate program, where we move very quickly to higher focus levels.
I have a way to make time my servant, rather than my master.
The last program I took was Starlines Reunion this past spring. As in Starlines II, by Sunday night we had reset Focus 42. At that point, time becomes so intertwined with inner space that it has very little relevance, and the next three days seem to happen in a state of suspended animation.
It is only when we reach Thursday, and the winding down of the program, that I find myself wondering where the time went.
The key to the Monroe programs for me, it seems, is that central, magical, three days. During that time, we will do as many as fifteen separate exercises, each building on the one before, each offering a portal into space-time with new avenues of reality beckoning.
While I work to be present for all the exercises during the program, I find that for that central three days I am much more fully in the program, steeped in Nonphysical Matter Reality, allowing my monkey-mind some downtime. I take in the energy of the Nancy Penn Center, the Fox Den, my fellow travelers, and the focus levels. I allow space-time to expand as I explore every possible aspect of the exercises. I allow it to contract as I gather with the others to talk and share. During these three days, there does not appear to be either a beginning or an ending to the program.
With very little effort I can step into that place of no-time, all-time and recenter, reassess my priorities, and release stress and tension.
What do I do to fully encompass all that a Monroe program has to offer, to make the most of the time I have?
- Acknowledge before the program that this is “me” time, and all the other things that occupy my time on a daily basis are being put on hold.
- Talk with other participants and share hopes and expectancies for the program. This way I have the energy of twenty or so other people helping me to stay inside the program.
- Use my Energy Conversion Box to store any concerns, worries, stray thoughts that may pull me away from fully experiencing the timelessness of each exercise (I also sit my Ego at a desk with pen and paper and instruct it to take detailed notes that I promise to review while I am doing my journal!)
- Allow myself to float on the energy of the exercise—powered by Hemi-Sync® or SAM—as an observer as well as a participant.
- Journal after each exercise to preserve the moments that were interesting, profound, funny, or just plain silly.
- Share my insights and experiences and listen to the insights and experiences of other participants.
With grounding at the end of each program comes the return of time—schedules, commitments, responding to the needs of others in our life beyond Monroe.
But now I have a tool. At any time, I can take a few minutes and visit Focus 10, or Focus 15, or Focus 42. I have been trained to do this. With very little effort I can step into that place of no-time, all-time, and recenter, reassess my priorities, and release stress and tension. I can revisit places I found during my Monroe explorations.
I have a way to make time my servant, rather than my master.