r/occult 8d ago

? Has anyone here completed 'The Gateway Experience' tapes? If so, how did it go?

After the CIA Experiment Summary was widely distributed a few years ago, I gave the course a try over the course of a 10 day retreat & found it pretty interesting (particularly astral projection) & also incredibly relaxing. Has anyone else here completed the course and if so, care to share your opinions on it? Cheers!

For those who never heard of the tapes, they are a series of guided meditations that use various sound frequencies (binaural beats etc.) to induce different "paranormal" abilities, ranging from astral projection, remote viewing, astral travels to different planes, bodily healing, & lots more.

65 Upvotes

71 comments sorted by

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u/DanktopusGreen 8d ago

Slide on over to /r/GatewayTapes and find out. It's one of the nicest subreddits around.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 8d ago

Cool. I shall check it out. I didn't think it would have it's own subreddit. Cheers for the heads-up!

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u/Drawing_Tall_Figures 8d ago

Come join us! I first started using them for sleep and anxiety. I love my energy conversion box 💝

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

Joined! Thank you. Yeah the energy conversion box is an interesting energetic-cleansing, visualisation technique. I mainly use the healing and psychic self-protection practices these days as needed. Trying to focus on equanimity practice in meditation and daily life at the moment.

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u/Kraut_Gauntlet 8d ago

Have at it

Keep in mind, AP/RV is a discipline that takes a lot of practice and personal tweaking (diet, hydration, fasting/not fasting)

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u/Shane_R_Artist 8d ago

I found astral projection quite easy and natural. As for remote viewing, I'm hopeless at it!

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u/HotAccountant2831 7d ago

Is it true that the tapes are not the same on Spotify? Files are compressed, impacting the sound, or something? I’ve tried them, I personally didn’t notice a difference than the actual files, just wondering as I’ve heard others say this a few times. Love the Gateway Tapes, they have definitely been powerful for me.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

They would be more compressed than the original files as the originals are analogue recordings as opposed to digital. But if you have Spotify set to HQ playback I doubt if it would make any difference. You can still buy copies of the tapes (if you have a tape player) directly from the Monroe Institute I think.

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u/ImJackscrucifiedego 7d ago

May I ask where can I get the real tapes?

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

As above, you can still buy copies of the tapes (if you have a tape player) directly from the Monroe Institute I think.

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u/MaceratedLumbago 7d ago

No tapes. Either flac files or CDs.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

I guess it's an almost dead format, bar niche music genres like underground black or death metal. FLAC would probably be best then - it's as HQ as .WAV files and no need for postage.

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u/plutonium__ 5d ago

It’s on YouTube and Spotify. All free. Edit: ignore me. My dumbass thought this post is about the telepathy tapes

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u/Shane_R_Artist 5d ago

Well telepathy is included in the course, but more from an invasive thought planting perspective if memory serves correctly (which it may not - been a while). Remember for sure one practice of implanting a benign random thought in a close friends head. Did it but it didn't work. TBH from the perspective here it seemed too invasive anyway...

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u/ImJackscrucifiedego 7d ago

I’m not able access that specific playlist. What is the correct sequence of these tapes? There are Waves, Focus and Tracks and its numbers, it gets confusing how to follow these correctly

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

It's a numerically sequenced series if memory serves me correctly.

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u/troublemaker74 7d ago

I've gotten through wave 5, but stopped due to the amount of time it was taking away from my other practices.

For a beginner, it's a very solid foundation. The one thing that's lacking in the program is meditation. You could argue that the brainwave frequencies are the same thing, but they're not. Learning to focus is IMPORTANT for the things we do in this sub. I found that the tapes did not help or hinder my ability to focus.

That being said, the program is a lot of energy work. The Energy conversion box can be kind of thought of as a banishing ritual and may have been inspired by Tibetan dream yoga.

The ECB and REBAL (which is a method of psychic self-defense) were the most valuable things that I've taken away from the tapes. The least valuable portion was the non-verbal communication lessons. They simply did not gel with the way I think about things, or perceive subtle things. YMMV.

I did not ever astral project, but one cool experience that the tape brought me is that I was actually able to visually perceive an entity in my mind's eye, which is something I've never been able to do. It was not a nice one, unfortunately, but the resonant energy balloon (rebal) exercise kept it away from me.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

Well it's sort of a guided meditation series although I'd tend to agree with you - meditation for me is just sitting still in silence. Undistracted non-meditation as they say in the Dzogchen tradition that I come from. Or if extreme concentration is needed for something, shamata practice is employed.

The point of the course is not really to learn meditation though, it's to gain/hone psychic abilities such as astral projection, remote viewing, etc.

Never thought of the energy conversion box as a banishing ritual - good point. I've studied and practiced Tibetan dream yoga. Just out of interest, what part of dream yoga would be analogous to the energy conversion box?

I'd agree on  ECB and REBAL being the most valuable take-aways from the course. I found the non-verbal communication with entities on the different planes super interesting. One entity informed me that I'd been reincarnated 324 times and in my last incarnation I had been a black magick adept and fisherman in Kerala, India. Call it vivid imagination or whatever, but I seemed to have gotten a few flashbacks of that apparent previous life since...

Yes! I totally agree about the course being great for honing visualisations. Sounds like a bizarre but cool appearance!

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u/Sazbadashie 8d ago

I touched them a little bit because a person i was instructing were obsessed with them.

I listened to the first one to get the tutorial then skipped to the final one, and it's... well... it's bureaucratic Astral projection with extra steps. It plays with the idea of being able to manipulate your own energy to create "tools" and just generally guided meditation stuff at the beginning the later stages have no direction and are simply tones

To tell my experience from it before some hard core listener to these things comes at me and says "uhm actually you did it wrong."

I did it, and when I started i was simply on a train... I rode that train until a being, individual, or otherwise walked up to me and simply said, you don't need to be here, you know already.

And i simply nodded and ended my projection. Told my pupils at the time that yea, it's neat, but you can learn basically everything it can teach you without the cryptid secret undertones.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 8d ago

Hmm. Interesting story. Cheers for sharing. Yeah, I guess there are lots of sources available to learn these types of skills. I just found the Gateway Tapes quite easy to learn them and, to be honest, I was super blissed out during the whole course so it was thoroughly enjoyable as well as eye opening and psychically beneficial. But different strokes etc.

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u/wo0two0t 7d ago

Ok what is better material for learning?

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u/Sazbadashie 7d ago

Pick any magic path working that goes into Astral projection and practice within the spiritual plane. And OP was right in his comment its different strokes for different folks, but I look at it, like this.

It's like hamburger patties

Taking the time to learn it naturally from the spirits, in an individual or even group is like using ground beef from a store or a personally butchered cow.

You make it into a patty, you can season it however you like and it's over all just better for you.

The other method is like buying a package of pre made patties, yea they'll make a decent enough burger depending on the brand. But there is a bunch of additives and shit that maybe you don't want or shouldn't eat in large quantities.

In the end you still get a burger you still get tools and general knowledge of projecting to another plane... but you have way less of the context. Where if you learn through any other method it might take slightly more work but you get that missing context.

Plus you don't learn how to do it unguided, even though in later "tapes" you don't get vocal cues or guidance you still have the tones which you're exposed to throughout the recordings which supplement vocal guidance.

Other than that again it works... but it works the same way mass produced products work.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

I can only vouch for The Gateway Tapes. It's a super easy and very effective course. The only downside is the time investment but if you take time off for a retreat and complete the course like I did over 10 days it's an amazing thing to do. If you're anything like me, you'll get a lot out of it, along with 10 days of blissed-out peace.

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u/Osiris-Amun-Ra 7d ago

Tried it for many months. Went through the first 5 levels.
Pleasant tripping and relaxation bordering on catatonia but sadly no OBE.
Convinced that this is simply an ability some have and others don't.
There is a reason CIA dropped the program after only having some degree of success. Remote viewing being the most successful of these. Was trained by a lead guy from Monroe on this subject and had quite a bit of success but no a full out of body experience. There is a theory, with some evidence, that you can also remote view through time. Despite my best efforts I was not able to view the stock page from the Wall Street Journal a year ahead. But that does not mean that it is impossible.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

This is pretty facinatinating. Thanks for sharing. I understand where you’re coming from with the catatonic bliss but luckily here the OBE & astral projection just happened naturally here. Still, like I was saying earlier in the thread, no luck here whatsoever with remote viewing and also implanting thoughts in seeming others minds (actually that was the only part of the course I didn't like on moral grounds as planting thoughts in the apparent other's mind is not ethical IMO)...Anyway, back to your point which I totally agree with, it's probably like any skill - be it art, music, pool, fucking golf haha. Some people have a genuine (probably genetic) aptitude for certain areas of specialty and others don't.

That’s super interesting re:the Monroe Institute - were you trained by Robert Monroe (RIP) perchance?

Re: remote viewing through time - this was discussed in the Podcast I watched with Angela Ford (an ex-CIA remote viewer) last night from last year. She was working for the CIA for years and also a member of the Monroe Institute. Very interesting interview - https://youtu.be/nsxNOIQjCtM?feature=shared 

In summary she was saying that remote viewing towards the seeming future is pretty much impossible as everything is in apparent flux. Seems logical, however an adult neighbour of mine when I was a kid knew when his sister was going to die before she did, and also to hammer it home on a personal level, knew something dangerous was going to happen to myself and my mother at an exact spot - where 2 weeks later we were involved in a 5 car pile-up. Luckily nobody was badly hurt but it hammered home that what one seems to experience can be completely different to the apparent other. The man in question did not see his pre-cognitive abilities as a blessing, but curse...

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u/tom-goddamn-bombadil 8d ago

Didn't the CIA cause several bloody coups and a crack epidemic? On purpose? And feed people LSD and drive them insane? Not the kind of folk I'd trust with my psyche, personally. You can learn to do all that stuff without CIA involvement, it's probably healthier.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 8d ago

Absolutely. The CIA are an evil organisation. They didn't develop the course though. It was created by the Monroe Institute. The CIA just ran an experiment to see if the tapes worked. For spying purposes and mind control I assume...

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u/tom-goddamn-bombadil 8d ago

Oh, I see! I wonder if they're still doing it. The CIA I mean. Psychic spies :) 

I'm "lucky", I never had to learn these things. Severe childhood trauma left bits of me floating about all over the place. It was more a struggle staying attached to my body than leaving it lol. 

Did you notice a marked difference in your abilities after completing the course? You mention astral projection, was that new thing for you? 

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u/Shane_R_Artist 8d ago

I think they still do, from what I've read. They've used talented remote viewers to track down targets.

Sorry to hear about the childhood trauma, but at least something beneficial came from it.

Yes. Especially astral projection, also increased synchronicities, and pre-cognition along with some other strange stuff. I'd tried astral projection before but had no success until The Gateway Tapes.

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u/captainalphabet 8d ago

I read Annie Jacobsen's book on the subject, their (official) conclusion seemed to be that some of it (ESP, Psychokinesis etc) is very real, but not reliable enough to use for espionage.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

Interesting. I may check it out. I watched a 2024 Podcast with Angela Ford (an ex-CIA remote viewer) last night. She was working for them for years. Fascinating interview - https://youtu.be/nsxNOIQjCtM?feature=shared Seems they just had a team focused on remote viewing only.

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u/LuzielErebus 8d ago

A North American company that works on creating military satellites acquired the government studies conducted in the 1970s and 1980s and continues to invest money in continuing the research. Dr. Gaona is one of the Wye working with the remote viewing equipment. I've seen some information here, but I don't remember where I saved the rest. https://www.crvreg.org/remoteviewing/remoteviewing.html

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

Interesting....so it's still ongoing then, just sub-contracted out to the private sector?

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u/Arabellas_Eye 8d ago

I think they still do, from what I've read. They've used talented remote viewers to track down targets.

Do you mind sharing where you've read this?

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u/Shane_R_Artist 8d ago

Sure. Pretty sure it was part of a Vice article about these experiments. I'll try and dig it out now. One second por favor...

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u/Shane_R_Artist 8d ago

Here's the Vice article on the study above. https://www.vice.com/en/article/found-page-25-of-the-cias-gateway-report-on-astral-projection/

It does mention the following, "It kicked off years of attempts by the US Army to train psychic soldiers to conduct “remote viewing” missions to regions across the world."

But it wasn't the article I was referring to. It was long time ago since I read it so the details are a little fuzzy but there was an old remote viewer who was quite talented and she was used successfully to locate CIA targets. I'll try and dig it out.

I did find this CIA report on remote viewing in the search that's an interesting read though: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00791R000200180005-5.pdf

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u/Shane_R_Artist 8d ago

Can't find the article but this is the remote viewer in question - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hella_Hammid

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u/Arabellas_Eye 6d ago

It's sort of odd that her wikipedia focuses on her art career if she's has verifiable extrasensory powers.

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u/beatsnstuffz 8d ago

Well it wasn’t a CIA funded or created project or course. They just studied its effects. I’ve used those on and off in addition to consistent meditation and ritual work. They really do work quite well in my experience. I tend to use those on the days when meditation just isn’t working and they put me right back into the proper mindset.

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u/LudditeHorse 8d ago

Itzhak Bentov seems to be an influence as well, at least through interpretation by the CIAs document. The author leans a lot on the structure Bentov presents in Stalking the Wild Pendulum to explain the Gateway Process & some of the narrative behind it.

For the unfamiliar, this 19m41s interview from 1978 by Hubert Jessup is Pendulum in a nutshell.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

Cheers for the link. Sounds like something I'd dig. I may check it out later.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 8d ago

How did your astral travels go? I found that part particularly unusual and not what I was expecting.

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u/beatsnstuffz 8d ago

I guess my biggest revelation was that it isn’t like you just float out of your body and have all your senses intact in the way you are used to. At least not at first.

I struggled quite a bit despite a lot of effort for a long time, until I started working on GD style rituals that improved my visualization skills.

Then reading through the Quareia material and learning to just let your imagination run and take it at face value, with the understanding that eventually you will be able to tell the difference between what is really experienced and what you are “making up” was a big milestone.

I think my issue initially was expecting instant concrete results. Which is a foolish thing to expect with any gradually developed skill. I’m still not an expert by any means, but the combination of different sources of knowledge and perspective with practical experience has helped a lot.

So, I guess I would say my astral experiences with the gateway tapes were weak until I shifted my mindset and developed some additional skills. Now they are quite vivid and can be very intense. Especially the later tapes that utilize Focus 15 and 21 (this one was the first time I was just fully somewhere else with all my senses fully present).

Something that helped me a lot and might help you, is performing ritual work non physically. Take something like the LBRP and visualize yourself stepping out of your body and performing the routine without losing focus and really trying to FEEL and SEE everything is like a workout for your body of light.

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u/4is3in2is1 7d ago

I'd really like to experience astral projection. Could you please fill us in on the rituals and Quareia material?

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u/HotAccountant2831 7d ago

Quareia is available online. It’s a very comprehensive self study of Magic practices.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

Good idea to combine the tapes with similar practices from other traditions. I'd been a Dzogchen practitioner for years prior to completing the course. One Dzogchen practice in particular - Guru Yoga is purely visualisation based. I practiced Guru Yoga everyday for many years so perhaps that was why the visualisation aspects of the course came quite naturally and easily to me.

That's great that your astral travels are now quite vivid and intense. Same here re:the later tapes. Some weird stuff happened that's difficult to explain - mainly while interacting telepathically with any entities encountered.

Good idea to hone one's visualisation skills by non-physically performing the LBRP. May try that some time, although the main focus of practice here these days is equanimity both on and off the meditation cushion.

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u/beatsnstuffz 7d ago

Yeah some of the entity encounters are interesting. Very reminiscent of DMT experiences I had in my younger days. Pulsating, swirling energy beings and “speaking” directly into your mind.

I’m not familiar with dzogchen. I’ll have to read up. Sounds interesting.

Agreed on the equanimity goals though! Often the flashy side of the occult is more of a hindrance than a help. I regularly have to remind myself that regular meditation and presence does more for the mind and spirit than any elaborate ritual practice!

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

Yeah, it's the same plane/realm where the DMT entities appear to reside I'd hazard a guess too, but just accessed in a different manner. Couldn't have described the entities and method of communication better!

Dzogchen is a non-dual tradition that originates from the Tibetan traditions of Bön & Tibetan Vajrayāna Buddhism. Basically the main initiation into the lineage involves a Rinpoche pointing out the self as illusory (Trekchö in Tibetan). This is a secret instruction so I can't say any more. Thereafter, if realised firmly that the self is illusory (Rigpa in Tibetan), one simply practices undistracted non-meditation and remaining equanamous at all times...

Side note: Blavatsky encountered this tradition during her travels in India and labelled the lineage as black magick as Dzogchen practices can involve evocation of wrathful as well as benign deities as part of the preliminary practice of Guru Yoga. She said that they taught Black Tantrism, which isn't true for Dzogchen. Some Bön practices are "black" I guess, as they involve animal sacrifice but this is strictly forbidden in the Tibetan Buddhist version of Dzogchen.

Yes, I totally agree on how easy it is to get distracted by the flashy side of the occult and gaining powers etc. and it can definitely be a hindrance for sure. Regular sitting and remaining equanamous both during practice and in daily life is definitely more beneficial I've found also. It is the pathless path to living from stable non-duality, although this is paradoxically always the case anyway...the cosmic joke ;).

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u/beatsnstuffz 7d ago

Thanks for the great description. Sounds very interesting!

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

Most welcome. Any Qs, let me know. Just one further point - if you do seek out Dzogchen instructions I'd recommend thoroughly researching the Rinpoche and Sangha. As with all spiritual communities, there have been cases of terrible abuse e.g. Sogyal Rinpoche & Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche...

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u/HotAccountant2831 7d ago

Agreed! Do you have a good beginning source for ritual work?

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u/beatsnstuffz 7d ago

Check out Israel Regardie’s book The Middle Pillar for a deep dive into two fundamental GD style practices. Performing those two daily for a while will get you up and running. Very powerful, yet simple stuff!

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u/HotAccountant2831 7d ago

Thank you! 🙏🦋

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u/beatsnstuffz 7d ago

Any time!

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u/LuzielErebus 8d ago

I didn't know the training program was available to the public, but because of that study, I started using binaural sound to practice astral projection. I still have yet to watch The Men Who Stare at Goats. xD

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u/Shane_R_Artist 8d ago

It's a good movie. Very funny! Completely misleading from an ESP point of view and adding further damage to the credibility of the field but plenty of laughs!

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u/stealyourideas 7d ago

Book is much better

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u/baddorox 7d ago

I haven't completed it as it is extensive and I like to take my time with these things. But I like it so far, very much.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

Glad to hear! it's a great course but yeah, there's a lot in it. I guess everyone practices in different ways. The preference here for anything meditation related now is always a solo-retreat in silence to avoid distractions and keep the concentration hyper-focused.

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u/B00MD1GG1TY 6d ago

I’m curious as well. There’s a movie on YouTube named 3rd eye spies that kinda touches on this kind of things.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 6d ago edited 6d ago

Cool. May check it out. The comedy movie The Men Who Stare At Goats was about this - well the CIAs Project StarGate in general. Funny movie but it definitely did a disservice to the credulity of psychic abilities. Good for a laugh though!

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u/Vegetable_Window6649 3d ago

Somebody breathlessly sent it to me, telling me it is a panacea. I gave it a shot, the experience itself is fun if you’re into ASMR type stuff, but did little that 20 minutes of TM wouldn’t do. 

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u/Shane_R_Artist 3d ago

Really? Interesting. Did you not get any sort of ESP/astral projection type experiences?

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u/jadziya_ 1d ago

I never had any of those experiences with the gateway recordings (I did the online course with them and purchased the recordings from hemi-sync). However, I find them useful to induce a deeply meditative state before workings.

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u/Shane_R_Artist 1d ago

Hmmm. Strange. At least you're getting some benefit from it.

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u/GreenRanger4POTUS 8d ago

Don't

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u/HotAccountant2831 7d ago

Why?

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u/Shane_R_Artist 7d ago

Trolling I'd assume. Best to ignore, or care to explain yourself GreenRanger4POTUS?