Focusing the Whole Brain

Book Excerpt: CHAPTER ONE

PERSONAL GROWTH
AND DEVELOPMENT

     Curiosity, said Robert Monroe, is the best approach to a course at The Monroe Institute. Come without any special expectations?certainly don?t come expecting to have an out-of-body experience. Keep an open mind and see what happens.
     What happens to many people is they find that somehow the experience itself brings about what amounts to a rapid?sometimes dramatic?acceleration in their personal growth and development. An attack of flu prompted Therese Bullard to attend to her mother Barbara?s insistence that she try the tapes to see how they might help. Felicia Potter was one of the first to attend the Teenage Gateway program. Difficulty sleeping drove Tim Ambrose to take a friend?s advice to listen to Sound Sleeper, and his subsequent experience with Hemi-Sync was largely responsible for his decision to create a Center for Healing Arts in Hawaii. Suzane Proulx and Gail Blanchette, in their different ways, discovered new perspectives that they eloquently describe in their contributions to this chapter. Anne Carpenter gives a vivid and moving account of the help she obtained in coping with autism from many of the Hemi-Sync exercises. In contrast, we have a personal account of the effects of the Gateway experience on a group of prisoners?the only group in that prison with black, white, and Hispanic participants.
     These six contributions illustrate the effects of this audio technology in helping individuals to fulfill their potential by encouraging them to investigate new and often exciting ways in which they can grow and develop, no matter their age or pattern of life.

Mind, Body, Spirit, and Hemi-Sync
Theresa Bullard

     Theresa Bullard has a master?s degree in physics and is currently working on completing her Ph.D. at the University of Washington Department of Physics. Her experience with Hemi-Sync dates back to her teenage years, when her mother, Barbara Bullard, first became involved with The Monroe Institute. Theresa?s extended experience with the Monroe products and their ability to enhance states of consciousness has helped to shape some of her career interests. She hopes to combine her experiential passion for exploring consciousness with her background and training in physics to conduct research in the area of science and consciousness.

     Looking back on all the various experiences that I have had with The Monroe Institute and its technologies, it is hard to zero in on just one to share. In fact, it seems that the diversity itself is one of the greatest assets that TMI has. My initial uses of Hemi-Sync and Metamusic were rather pragmatic; I used them for promoting better sleep, visualization for enhancing athletic performance, boosting the immune system and bodily functions during the cold and flu seasons, using the Surgical Support series for a knee surgery, facilitating academic studies, conducting a psychology experiment with Remembrance, and more. Additionally, I have further enhanced my brain and body?s affinity to the Hemi-Sync frequencies by attending one of the weeklong, intensive Gateway retreats, as well as experiencing a PREP session in the lab.
     My introduction to The Monroe Institute and Hemi-Sync came in 1989, when my mother returned home from her first Professional Division Seminar at the Institute. She was so excited and impressed by the audio technology and its many potential applications that she told us all about it and started encouraging us to use the tapes for just about anything. At first I simply humored my mother, as teenagers often do, and used the tapes here and there without paying much attention to the effects. It took the desperation of feeling very ill from the flu to get me to finally use the tapes and recognize that they really worked! From then on, I used the tapes without question anytime I felt flu or a cold coming on. The tapes I typically used when I felt sick were Lung Repair and Maintenance for colds, and Regenerate and Circulation for the flu and general health. I found that, when I used these tapes, a cold that would typically take me two weeks to fully recover from would be gone in half the time, and any flu-like symptoms would also be greatly alleviated. As my mother explains it, the Hemi-Sync frequencies facilitate the body?s process of achieving what is called a ?trophotropic? state of healing. This state is relaxed and balanced through the Hemi-Sync, allowing the body?s natural defenses and immune system to utilize a much higher percentage of its energy reserves to eliminate any harmful pathogens.
     Another use that I found for Hemi-Sync was to help enhance my athletic performance through visualization exercises with the tapes, specifically with See-Be. As high jumper on the varsity track team in high school, and a varsity volleyball player in both high school and college, I was always striving to perform better. I found that the use of visualization was extremely effective for improving my technique and form. This fact is well known now and practiced by many athletes around the world. But with the addition of Hemi-Sync and its access functions to imprint and recall the memory of the proper technique, I found that my performance improved much more quickly than it did with regular visualization done without this support. Synchronizing was one tape I used for improving my speed, timing, and coordination for athletic performance.
     I was even able to address the common, and unfortunate, occurrence of athletic injury using Hemi-Sync. No, Hemi-Sync did not prevent me from being injured?and believe me, I had more than my fair share of injuries?but it did help me recover from my injuries much faster and more completely.
     One of the worst injuries I ever had was when I tore all the ligaments in my right ankle. To make matters worse, I got an infection from all the swelling, which was extremely painful. I was in a walking cast for a month, and it was not until the week before I was to have the cast removed that I felt I could start walking on it. When the cast was removed, my ankle was extremely bruised and still very swollen. The doctor said we might need to do surgery if it did not start to heal better. It was at this point that I decided to use the Hemi-Sync tapes to see if they could help for an injury. After one week of using the tapes, the swelling in my ankle had greatly reduced, and the bruising had started to heal. These results were the first real visible and tangible evidence that I had for the healing power of Hemi-Sync.
     My experience with using the Hemi-Sync tapes for athletic pur?poses was extremely positive and beneficial, and I would highly recommend they be added as an essential component of any athlete?s sports bag, right next to the first-aid kit! The tapes I used most often for injuries were Regenerate, to facilitate healing, and Circulation, to reduce swelling.
     During my student years, I have had many occasions to use Hemi-Sync, especially Metamusic, for my studies. When it comes to studying for tests, I have found using the exercise Retain-Recall-Release to be beneficial by helping me to remember the material more readily. I have also noticed that I can actually read faster and study longer without getting tired when I have the Metamusic selections Remembrance or Einstein?s Dream playing in the background. Remembrance is also great for times when I am writing, whether it be writing a technical paper, a creative piece, or an article. I am listening to it right now! The words seem to flow much more easily, and I am able to keep my focus on the task at hand, yet still draw from my creative and expressive faculties.
     When I was in high school, I conducted a psychology experiment to test the effects of Remembrance on short-term memory. The results from this experiment were illuminating in some very important areas, but not in the ones we were expecting. It turned out that we did not see any difference in memory-recall between listening to Remembrance with and without the embedded Hemi-Sync frequencies. We later discovered that the tape I had used for the version of Remembrance with the embedded frequencies had been a tape dubbed from the original. In the process of dubbing the tape, the Hemi-Sync frequencies were lost, due to their low volume level on the original. We also learned how important it is to make sure the Dolby Noise Reduction option is turned off on any stereo that is playing these tapes or CDs. Otherwise, the frequencies get treated as background noise and are filtered out by the Dolby system. The interesting result that we did get from this experiment, however, was that there was a significant increase in memory recall when the students listened to the Remembrance music versus when they had no music playing. If I had had the occasion to conduct a follow-up experiment like this, I would have added in two more portions, one being a piece of music that had lyrics and was similar to the popular Top 40 music, and another being some piece of music with no lyrics, like jazz or classical. And, of course I would have made sure that we used an original copy of the Metamusic version of Remembrance to test the effects of the embedded frequencies.
     Often when I used the Hemi-Sync tapes, I would fall asleep. This made the tapes an obvious choice for the times when I was having trouble falling asleep due to a chattering mind. When I was in high school and college, it would often take me more than an hour to fall asleep. With the aid of the tapes, however, I would be asleep in 20 minutes or less. I found that Restorative Sleep is a nice tape to use, because it doesn?t wake you up at the end, and it is designed for creating a restful sleep state. Another tape I often used for taking ?power naps? was Catnapper. After waking up from using Catnapper, I would feel like I had taken a three-hour nap in just 45 minutes. This was a really important tape for me during college when I would stay up late studying and then have to get up early for classes. A more recent favorite of mine for sleeping is Super Sleep, which I became fond of after attending TMI residential programs. I enjoy the effect of gentle ocean waves lulling me to sleep each night. And of course, I have also found that many Metamusic selections, like Inner Journey and Sleeping Through the Rain, are wonderful for falling asleep. The added effect of the soft music and the absence of the verbal guidance make Metamusic ideal background music, to get uninterrupted sleep all night long. Over time, I have found that I no longer have any problems falling asleep, even without the Hemi-Sync or Metamusic. I attribute this to the long-term effect that these exercises have had in quieting my mind and training my body to quickly achieve a relaxed state with ease.
     Another valuable use I have found for Metamusic is to play it while I am having any kind of body work or healing. I have listened to various compositions, such as Remembrance, Inner Journey, and Higher, while receiving massages, acupuncture, chiropractic treatments, Reiki, etc. In comparing my experiences and my body?s response to the treatments when I listen to Metamusic versus when I don?t, I have found that the Metamusic seems to enhance the session. Additionally, the practitioner usually enjoys listening to the Metamusic and benefits from it as well.
     Two of my most dramatic healing uses of Hemi-Sync occurred while I was recovering from painful injuries. The ankle injury I described previously was one of these, and the second was when I recently tore the ligaments in my left knee. This knee injury was by far the worst I have ever suffered. I had torn the lateral, medial, and ante?rior ligaments, as well as the meniscus, all accompanied by some bone bruising. It required a reconstructive surgery, under general anesthesia, in order to replace the ACL and help the knee to heal. As this was the only surgery I had ever been through, I was quite nervous. When I heard that TMI had recently released its Surgical Support series, I knew without a doubt that I was going to use it. During the nights preceding the surgery I listened to the Pre-Op tape. I found that this helped me relax, which greatly reduced any anxiety I had. I listened to it again while in the pre-op room at the hospital, and when I asked the anesthesiologists to play and monitor the Intra-Op and Recovery tapes for me during and after the surgery, they were more than accommodating. I recall that when they were taking me into the operating room they commented on how relaxed I already seemed from listening to the tape.
     The next thing I remember was being awakened by the Recovery tape while they were rolling me out of the operating room. I was amazed at how the tape precisely timed my awakening. The anesthesiologist told me afterwards that they didn?t even need to give me the full dose of the anesthetic. That was great! In the recovery room, I quickly regained my awareness and focus, and I remembered most of what the doctor said to me about how the operation went. This surgery required an overnight stay in the hospital so that they could monitor me and make sure I had help whenever I needed it. They warned me that typically people don?t sleep well after having surgery, but I had absolutely no trouble sleeping while listening to the ocean waves of Surf. It was wonderful. I just played the tape continuously through the night and into the next morning, and felt great. I experienced almost no pain aside from the occasional muscle spasm, which was, I admit, pretty awful. My recovery during the following nine months went about as smoothly and as quickly as anybody recovers from that type of procedure. One of the student interns had called me up a few days after my surgery to see how I was doing and what my pain levels were. I told her that I was doing just fine and was not experiencing any major problems. She was happy to hear that. Then she mentioned that the guy she had called before me, who underwent the same operation on the same day with the same surgeon, was in a lot of pain. I have no doubt that the ease of my surgery and the quick recovery were in large part due to the Surgical Support series, and I am so thankful that I used it.
     Since the time I first started using the Hemi-Sync tapes as a teen?ager, my involvement with TMI has increased. In July 2001 I attended the Gateway Voyage residential program, and I was so moved by it that I joined both the Dolphin Energy Club and the Professional Division. I returned the following March to attend the 2002 Professional Division Seminar. During my attendance at these residential programs, I experienced and explored new reaches of my own consciousness, as well as many more of the facets and applications of Hemi-Sync technology. The Professional Seminar was especially appealing to my scientific side, as it stimulated many interesting conversations among the professional members in attendance. From these conversations, a number of ideas came to mind for applying the TMI technologies in new ways.
     I am confident that TMI will continue its long tradition of excellence and exploration. In addition to the many benefits I have gained, the culmination of all these experiences with TMI has greatly influenced my interest in pursuing a career in the field of science and consciousness?a career that is based on both intellectual studies and scientific research, as well as experiential explorations.

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