Exploring the CIA documents concerning the Gateway project from 1983
It has come to my attention that I have not covered any conspiracy theories on here so it’s time to change that. I used to work at a front desk so when I was bored, I would read legends and theories for hours. All this “useless” research actually inspired me to start this blog. So for my first conspiracy post I want to introduce “Gateway.”
Gateway was a government project that basically proved the law of attraction, meditation, remote viewing, and astral projection. I think it’s important that everyone on the blog knows about this conspiracy because if you were questioning your spirituality or wondering if the stuff I talk about really happens now you know that the US Government also believes. So take that as you will. These experiments are declassified so you can go read the documents for yourself if you don’t believe me. This post is going to be a general summary of what Gateway was about so if you want to read it, I will link the documents below. I will also be linking other sources I use in researching more on this topic.
The report on Gateway was written in 1983 by Wayne Mcdonnell. Just by reading the intro, you know this one is about to get crazy. In the intro Mcdonnell states, “I had to be able to construct a scientifically valid and reasonably lucid model of how consciousness functions under the influence of the brain hemisphere synchronization technique employed by Gateway. Once this was done, the next step involved recourse to theoretical physics in order to explain the character of the time-space dimension and the means by which expanded human consciousness transcends it in achieving Gateway’s objectives. Finally, I again found it necessary to use physics to bring the whole phenomenon of out-of-body states into the language of physical science to remove the stigma of its occult connotations, and put it in a frame of reference suited to objective assessment.” What this means in English is he needed to explain how consciousness functions under the influence of the Gateway process (which will be explained later). Next he needed to explain how the human consciousness can transcend this space time dimension. Then finally, use physics to explain the out of body experience in order to make it more scientific and less occult.
The Gateway process is a method created by the Monroe Institute to achieve an altered state of consciousness. They did this through synchronizing the right and left brain and they refer to this as “hemi-sync.” This was accomplished through hypnosis, transcendental meditation, and biofeedback.
Like I said, the first method they used to transcend reality was hypnosis and McDonnell defines it like this, “According to the theories of psychologist Ronald Stone and the biomedical engineering models of Itshak Bentov, hypnosis is basically ‘a technique which permits acquisition of direct access to the sensory motor cortex and pleasure centers, and lower cerebral (emotional) portions (and associated pleasure centers) of the right side of the human brain following successful disengagement of the stimulus screening function of the left hemisphere of the brain.” This definition is explaining how hypnosis puts the person in an impressionable state. Notice in the definition by McDonnell, it talks about separating the right and left sides of the brain. This is important (especially for meditation) because the right brain is the holistic, intuitive, pattern oriented, non verbal and non critical side of the brain. While the left is our logical, and verbal part of the mind. The right brain accepts anything that the left lets pass through to it. One of the goals of meditation and Gateway is to access this right brain and allow information and sensations that the left would usually block to be accessed by the right and therefore accepted. They did this through a semi-sleep state (that we often experience in meditation), and through external stimuli. An example that is used in Gateway is inducing numbness. If I am only using my right brain and someone tells me my leg is numb, my brain will accept this as a fact and create the sensation of numbness in my leg. This is because the right believes everything and immediately responds. We often do this in manifestation when we induce good mental states. We use tricks like meditation and affirmations to trick our left brain into believing we’re happy so it can travel to the right brain and then finally to our pleasure centers. This then induces a feeling of wellbeing. This ability is relevant to Gateway and the Gateway process because if I am hypnotized and the suggestion I get is that I have enhanced concentration and memory, my right brain will access information that my left brain wouldn’t let me access.
The next method used in Gateway was transcendental meditation. The dictionary definition for transcendental meditation is “A technique for detaching oneself from anxiety and promoting harmony and self-realization by meditation, repetition of a mantra, and other yogic practices.” Notice that it requires the user to become detached. This was what Gateway was all about, detaching oneself from the body and logical mind. They would have the subject focus on bringing energy up the spine, triggering what we know as the Kundalini. The dictionary definition of Kundalini is, “latent female energy believed to lie coiled at the base of the spine.” When the Kundalini is awakened, there is a surge of energy up the spine and into the brain. These waves stimulate and polarize the brain, therefore providing access to the right brain. How this works is getting into this type of meditative state alters the heart rate in a way that it sends acoustical energy waves into the brain. These waves vibrate the fluid filled cavities in the brain. They also get sent into the gray matter of the right brain. These vibrations stimulate the pleasure and sensation parts of the brain and give a euphoric feeling. This feeling of bliss is often described in Kundalini awakenings which are usually brought on by yoga and meditation.
The third method used in the Gateway project was biofeedback. This method is different because they actually used the left brain to get to the right brain, whereas the other methods would bypass or ignore the left brain. Biofeedback teaches the left brain to visualize what it desires and create an emotional response. This process is measured with a digital thermometer as doing this creates a change in body temperature. Seeing this physical change triggers the left brain to allow the right brain to access parts of the brain and create the desired result. Then the left brain can instruct the right brain to strengthen these pathways. This gives the left brain direct access to instruct the right brain to do this whenever you want. The example they use in Gateway is healing the body with the mind. If you want to heal your left leg, you could use your left brain to visualize more circulation in your left leg. Then once the thermometer detects the change in temperature the right brain will be activated and save this process in your brain so you can do this whenever you want. We use this a lot in manifestation by using affirmations and tools like crystals and sigils to create change in life. By putting an affirmation in the universe and using physical tools like crystals our left brain is able to understand our desired effect and give this information to the right brain.
These methods are the basic principles of the Gateway process and achieving hemi-sync or as defined by Monroe Institute trainer, Melissa Jager as, “a state of consciousness defined when the EEG patterns of both hemispheres are simultaneously equal in amplitude and frequency.” Bob Monroe, creator of the Monroe Institute created tapes that were thought to assist subjects in achieving hemi-sync. By achieving hemi-sync, the vibrations of the mind are raised and this lines up the subject with the energies of the universe; allowing them to access unknown knowledge, perform out of body experiences, and manifest desire.
The hemi-sync focus tapes work by playing frequencies that the brain already creates. This activates the brain’s frequency following response or FFR. This means that when the brain hears a sound in a frequency that it can create it will mimic it. The brain normally produces beta waves but if it hears a theta wave it will alter its frequency to match the theta wave. Since theta waves are associated with sleep, this can cause a fully awake brain to fall asleep. Although these frequencies can’t usually be heard, Gateway used what’s called beat frequencies to achieve these effects. These are what’s known as binaural beats and they are used in meditation and sleep aid to this day. How it works is for the brain to recognize the sound it will actually play two slightly different frequencies in each ear. The brain recognizes the sound as certain wavelength through its ability to discern the difference in the sounds. In Gateway they would use this to put the subjects to sleep and unite the right and left brains, raising the vibration of the brain. Gateway would also slow down the heart rate and put the body in a very relaxed state so that the brain would hear the resonance of the sine waves coming from the slow heart pulse. This creates a higher vibration in the body than usual. This inturn allows the body and mind to vibrate at a frequency between 6.8 and 7.5 hertz. The Earth’s energy vibrates at 7-7.5 hertz.
By vibrating higher, the body creates an energy field around itself by using energy from the Earth’s field. Since the body and Earth’s vibrations match, this creates the ability to shift consciousness from the body to the surrounding energy. This also creates the ability to telepathically communicate.
If you thought that Gateway was crazy already, buckle up because we’re just getting started. Mcdonnell explained through the studies of Ishtak Bentov that everything is energy and vibrates. Bentov even measured this in comparison to the frequency of the electron. Then McDonnell exposes that we do in fact live in a matrix, “Energy creates, stores and retrieves meaning in the universe by projecting or expanding at certain frequencies in a three dimensional mode that creates a living pattern called a hologram.” What this means in non scientist language is that energy has meaning by projecting itself at different frequencies in a three dimensional mode. A hologram is created by energy in motion interacting with energy at rest. So if the universe is composed of energy fields like this, doesn’t that mean that the world as we know it is just a giant hologram?
Now that we know a little bit about how the universe and consciousness works, let’s jump into spacetime and how to transcend it. In physics, time is defined as, “a measurement of energy or force in motion.” For energy to be in motion it needs to be confined to a location. Energy that is not confined has no limit as energy cannot be created or destroyed, making it infinite. Since it is infinite, it cannot move. This is because there is nothing beyond infinity and since it can’t move it is beyond the dimension of time. Since this energy can’t be confined to one location, it is also beyond the dimension of space. This infinite energy is only at rest which makes it unable to create holograms and unable to be perceived. It does however maintain its ability to perceive holograms created by energy in motion thus, giving it consciousness. Then since it cannot create holograms we cannot perceive it. Physicists call this energy “the absolute.” Between the absolute and our material dimension are A LOT of other dimensions in which we can gain access to in an altered state of consciousness. This is what the Gateway process set out to accomplish through hemi-sync.
One of the principles in Gateway that I haven’t really mentioned yet is that they theorized that the past, present, and future, are all happening simultaneously. This is because of the ability to break out of space time that I explained earlier. The way that the physicists working on Gateway support this is by depicting the universe as a cosmic egg. Betov theorizes that when the big bang happened, the jet of matter that created our universe turned back on itself. This created an egg shape. Bentov said that the matter in our universe comes out of a white hole and exits through a black hole. As time as we know it moves forward, our universe moves along the side of the universal egg until it reaches the black hole. To support this, he looked at the locations of galaxies in relation to us. He suggests that our universe is located at the top of the egg right now because galaxies north of us seem to be moving away faster and appear to be caught in a downturn; seeming to move in an egg like shape. Then galaxies to the east and west are further away. Layered around the egg is the absolute which powers the black/white hole. When put in an altered state of consciousness, Bentov believes that we can gain access to knowledge from the past and future as they are all existing simultaneously in the egg.

So now that we have finally established the complete context of Gateway let’s look at the process. Success in contacting other dimensions varies from person to person as some people catch on quickly and for others it takes years. The first step is for the participants to use a psychological tool called an energy box. It is not an actual box but the subject imagines a box in the mind to place all negative energy and set it aside. Then they use a method called resonate tuning where the participant hums along to different frequencies on the Gateway tapes. This is still used in meditation today as humming allows a vibration to travel through the body, especially in the head. Then they do the Gateway affirmation which states that the subject is more than a physical body and he desires to expand his consciousness. Next the hemi-sync sounds are introduced and they put the physical body to sleep while stimulating the right brain. Next the subject is told to imagine an energy balloon starting at the head and moving down the body. This sets up an energy flow in and around the body which can be used for protection against lower entities in other dimensions. It also is a lot like the universal egg as bigger processes often mimic smaller ones. For example, the structure of an atom and the structure of the solar system.
After practicing this, the subject is now ready to truly expand awareness and contact other worlds. The first skill is that of problem solving. This is what we know as manifestation as the participant picks a problem that they want to solve and projects it into the universe. Then they use help from the higher self or expanded consciousness to receive the knowledge necessary to solve the problem. They also used the concept of our thoughts dictating our life through an idea called patterning. This is because our consciousness is our reality as we are just interpreting energies. So if thoughts are projected with intention they have the power to influence our reality.
Next they used a technique that they called color breathing. Today it is known as balancing the chakras. Basically, they had the participant imagine a certain color to activate certain energy. The different colors had different frequencies to activate different energies. When given power these energies had great power including healing, balancing, and revitalizing the physical body. The example they used in Gateway was imagining a blue light over a swollen part of the body showed less swelling; while red and yellow had the opposite effect. This goes to the show the power of the mind as no real lights are used, just imagination.
The next technique was that of the energy bar. The participant imagines a pulsing bulb of energy. Then they transform it into a cylinder around their body and use it to channel the universe. Since a lot of this conspiracy is proving metaphysical concepts, another way this can be applied is to magick wands and scepters. Although this one seems a little more far fetched to me, in ancient times royals and religious leaders carried wands or scepters. These wands would often have magick powers from the universe. Today we use a similar concept with selenite wands and some witches use wands made of wood. They actually used this example in Gateway so I felt like I should include it. In Gateway, this mental magick wand was actually used as a portal to initiate remote viewing. For this, the participant turns the cylinder into a swirling vortex. They then visualize what they want to see. The reason for the swirling energy vortex is that it is actually a cue for the subconscious to allow remote viewing to happen.
Another skill known as living body map employs the energy bar and color breathing. Much like a magick wand, the participant imagines the appropriate color coming out of the energy bar to heal the body. This is often used in meditation as well as most of the other techniques described.
Contrary to popular belief, Gateway did not spend much time on simply facilitating out of body movement but it is still very important as splitting the consciousness from the body is imperative for many of the previous techniques. They used many of the techniques that we use for astral projection like rolling out, climbing (similar to rope or ladder methods), and sliding out of the body. Also similar to our concept of astral projection, they found that in REM sleep the participants almost always had an out of body experience. It was also easier to achieve this when the hemi-sync tapes were used in REM sleep. This shows that while we have out of body experiences every night, the hemi-sync tapes helped the right brain consciously control and remember them. Sleep is also a way to get into the altered consciousness needed to communicate with the universe. According to Gateway, there are three requirements for voluntarily inducing an out of body experience:
- A state of profound calm
- Synchronization of the brain
- Stimulation of the right hemisphere of the brain
Here’s where there were some holes in Gateway and what it was trying to accomplish with out of body experiences. So although yes they basically proved that the out of body experience is possible, there were holes in the information that the participants acquired. In Gateway, they wanted to use the out of body experience to acquire knowledge from all over the universe. They tried to prove this theory through remote viewing by having the subject on one coast read 10 numbers from a computer in a lab on the other coast. The participants would get enough digits correct to prove that they really remote viewed but they never got all 10. There is also potential for the participant to be interfered with by other energies in the plane they were on that could skew the messages they receive. The hologram could also be distorted in this state.
What interests me most about Gateway is how it is connected to ancient beliefs and they even provided a few examples in the report. Here is an excerpt from the book, “Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects,” “The tangible world is movement, say the Masters, not a collection of moving objects, but movement itself.” Then the universal hologram is described in a Hindu Sutra, “In the heaven of Indra there is said to be a network of pearls so arranged that if you look at one you see all the others reflected in it.” It is also worth noting that the concept of the universal egg is well known to eastern religious scholars. From a Christian viewpoint, God would be the absolute and the son would be the hologram as God is all knowing, unmoving and beyond time and space. Then the son perceives God on Earth. The absolute is also described in Hebrew philosophy.
One last thing I want to touch on in gateway is moving into the past and future. There is not much information on this but according to the Gateway documents it is possible with advanced practice. So in summary, the objective of Gateway was to achieve enhanced consciousness to acquire knowledge from other places. These documents were declassified in 2010 and they reside on the CIA website so I find them very believable. I have one closing piece of evidence that the concept of other dimensions and using them is for real. There is a leaked email from the 2016 Podesta hack. This email is from a former astronaut to John Podesta (Clinton’s campaign manager). “….because the War in Space race is heating up, I felt you should be aware of several factors as you and I schedule our Skype talk. Remember, our nonviolent ETI from the contiguous universe are helping us bring zero point energy to Earth….” At first I didn’t find this very substantial but the words: contiguous universe suggest a universe close to ours rather than far away space. Then with the zero point energy this suggests channeling from other dimensions. Before I end this post, I want to leave you with one quote that I have found interesting since the first time I read Gateway almost a year ago, “Contrary to what everyone knows is so, it may not be the brain that produces consciousness — but rather, consciousness that creates the appearance of the Brain…” Psychologist Keith Floyd said.
Sources:
Gateway documents: ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENT OF GATEWAY PROCESS (cia.gov)
Gateway documents reformatted to make them easier to read: Analysis and Assessment of the Gateway Process | by Devon Meadows | Accessible FOIA | Medium
The Gateway project has fascinated me since it was first released! I’ve skimmed the document, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately so I’m going to really sit down and read it one day soon.
Do you mind if I link this post in my post for tomorrow? Like I said, I think the project is fascinating and I want to share it for those that think it’s interesting or might not have heard of it before. Let me know when you get a chance!
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Oh yeah go for it!! I’m glad you liked it! This source is the documents copied word for word so you don’t have to read the poorly scanned papers from the ‘80s, it even has all the pictures!
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Nice! That was another thing, the document was very hard to read lol. Thank you!
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Haha you’re welcome! I’ve read the original documents too and it took forever because it so hard to read so I was so happy when I found that article 🙌🏻
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Yes, and if I remember correctly, it was 25-30 pages long and copied crooked lol
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Yeah exactly
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Gonna post this on my socials if that’s cool with you 🥰
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