--- title: "Gateway Tapes: What They Are and What the CIA Report Says" description: "The Gateway tapes are a Monroe Institute audio course built on binaural beats. A 1983 Army report on them, kept in the CIA archive, went viral in 2021." url: https://shimmr.app/learn/gateway-tapes/ --- - [Learn](https://shimmr.app/learn/) - [Meditation](https://shimmr.app/learn/meditation/) # The Gateway tapes: what they are, what the CIA report says and the binaural beats inside The Gateway tapes are a Monroe Institute audio course built on binaural beats. A 1983 Army report on them, kept in the CIA archive, went viral in 2021. The Shimmr team Published Oct 22, 2026 4 min read - **What they are:** the Gateway Experience is a home audio course from the Monroe Institute, sold as eight albums called “Waves”, that guides you through a series of numbered mental states called Focus levels. - **Who made them:** Robert Monroe (1915 to 1995), an American radio executive who wrote the 1971 book “Journeys Out of the Body” and founded the Monroe Institute in Virginia. - **The CIA report:** “Analysis and Assessment of Gateway Process” is a 29 page assessment written in 1983 by US Army Lieutenant Colonel Wayne M. McDonnell, approved for release in 2003 and viral on TikTok in 2021. - **The sound:** the tapes use Hemi-Sync, Monroe’s name for layered binaural beats: two slightly different tones, one in each ear, that your brain hears as a slow pulse. - **The evidence:** there is no scientific evidence for the course’s claims about leaving the body, but a 2018 meta-analysis of 22 studies found a medium effect of binaural beats on memory, attention, anxiety and pain. Hear it ## What are the Gateway tapes? The Gateway tapes are a guided audio course called the Gateway Experience, made by the Monroe Institute in Virginia. You hear a voice that talks you through relaxation and breathing, layered over a tone pattern called Hemi-Sync. The Monroe Institute sells the course as eight albums, called Waves, each with six to eight exercises. Wave I, “Discovery”, starts with an orientation and then teaches Focus 10, which the course describes as “mind awake, body asleep”. The course uses numbered Focus levels as a map. The Monroe Institute describes the main ones like this: | Focus level | What the course says it is | | --- | --- | | Focus 10 | Mind awake, body asleep | | Focus 12 | Expanded awareness | | Focus 15 | “No time” | | Focus 21 | “The bridge” | These descriptions are the course’s own. Nobody has measured a Focus level in a lab. If you want the detail of the first one, see [what Focus 10 is](https://shimmr.app/learn/focus-10/). ## Who made the Gateway tapes? The Gateway tapes were made by Robert Monroe (1915 to 1995), an American radio executive who produced network radio programmes in the 1950s. In 1971 he published “Journeys Out of the Body”, a book about experiences he said he had outside his body, which helped make the term “out-of-body experience” popular. Monroe then turned his radio skills to sound. In 1975 he was granted [US patent 3,884,218](https://patents.google.com/patent/US3884218A), a “method of inducing and maintaining various stages of sleep” with a repetitive sound such as rain or wind. His later sound system, Hemi-Sync, became the core of the Gateway course and of the Monroe Institute, which he founded in Virginia. You can read more about [how Hemi-Sync works](https://shimmr.app/learn/hemi-sync/). ## What does the CIA Gateway report say? The so-called CIA Gateway report is a 29 page document called “Analysis and Assessment of Gateway Process”, dated 9 June 1983. It was written by Lieutenant Colonel Wayne M. McDonnell and submitted to the US Army, not written by the CIA. It ended up in a CIA collection on the military’s research into psychic phenomena, was approved for release in 2003 and is now in the [CIA’s public reading room](https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210016-5). The report sets out to assess the Gateway method’s mechanics and whether it could be of practical use. McDonnell tries to explain it in the language of physics, with ideas about brain waves, holograms, energy and consciousness. Page 25 is missing from the released copy, which fed years of speculation. In 2021, the [Monroe Institute shared a page it said was page 25](https://www.vice.com/en/article/found-page-25-of-the-cias-gateway-report-on-astral-projection/) from its own archive. Read [what page 25 actually says](https://shimmr.app/learn/gateway-page-25/). The report went viral in early 2021 through news articles and TikTok videos. Keep in mind what it is: one officer’s written analysis of the method. It contains no experiment that shows the method works. ## Are the Gateway tapes binaural beats? Yes, the sound in the Gateway tapes is built on binaural beats. A binaural beat happens when you hear one tone in your left ear and a slightly different tone in your right. Play 200 Hz in one ear and 204 Hz in the other, and your brain hears a slow 4 Hz pulse that is not in either signal. Hemi-Sync is the Monroe Institute’s name for its own blend: several binaural beats layered together, under the guiding voice. That is why the course asks for stereo headphones. A speaker mixes the two tones in the air before they reach you, and the beat disappears. ## Do the Gateway tapes work? There is no scientific evidence that the Gateway tapes lead to out-of-body experiences or any of the higher Focus states the course describes. Those claims come from the course and from personal reports, not from controlled studies. The binaural beats underneath are a different story, and the evidence is mixed. A [2018 meta-analysis](https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-018-1066-8) of 22 studies found a medium effect (g = 0.45) of binaural beats on memory, attention, anxiety and pain. But the idea that the brain falls into step with the beat, called entrainment, is shaky: a [2023 systematic review](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286023) found that 5 of 14 EEG studies supported it, 8 contradicted it and 1 was mixed. What many people describe after a Gateway session is deep relaxation, vivid imagery or the drifting state you pass through before sleep. Lying still with your eyes closed and a voice guiding your breathing can do that on its own. For a careful look at the research, see [whether binaural beats work](https://shimmr.app/learn/do-binaural-beats-work/). ## Are the Gateway tapes safe? For most healthy adults, listening to the Gateway tapes is low risk. The sound is quiet and the exercises are a form of guided relaxation. Keep the volume low, never listen while driving, and stop if you feel dizzy, anxious or unwell. If you have epilepsy, a history of seizures or a mental health condition, ask your doctor before you start. If you want a practical routine, see [how to listen to the Gateway tapes](https://shimmr.app/learn/how-to-listen-gateway-tapes/). The course itself is sold by the Monroe Institute. If you simply want to try binaural beats, Shimmr makes them live on your iPhone. It has no Monroe Institute content and is not affiliated with it. A Theta session, or the Tense → At Ease Shift (Beta to Theta), on headphones while lying down, is a gentle way to see how the sound feels to you. If you would like a voice to lead you, try Shimmr’s Journeys. They are original sessions designed for relaxation, with a similar shape: a voice, a slow descent into a quieter state, a long quiet hold and a guided return, while the tones, noise and ambience change with you. The first step, Arrival, takes about 14 minutes and starts simply: you notice your weight, your breath and the sounds around you. Then the voice brings in a tone in your left ear, then your right, then both together, where you may notice a soft shimmer between them. You can turn the voice down or off, and Stillness and Expanse follow when you are ready. - [Gateway tapes alternative A modern take on the Gateway tapes. Made by someone who has used them.](https://shimmr.app/gateway-tapes-alternative/) In the app Arrival · Weight, breath, sound · 14 min The first of Shimmr’s Journeys: a quiet voice guides you through your weight, your breath and the tones in each ear, then gives you time to rest. ## Common questions **What are the Gateway tapes?** The Gateway tapes, officially the Gateway Experience, are a guided audio course made by Robert Monroe and the Monroe Institute. They combine spoken instructions with Hemi-Sync, a layered binaural beat sound, and lead you through numbered states called Focus levels. **Did the CIA really use the Gateway tapes?** The famous document is a 1983 assessment written by a US Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Wayne M. McDonnell, which sits in the CIA’s public reading room. It shows that the US military looked at the method. It does not show that the method works. **Are the Gateway tapes binaural beats?** Yes, in part. Hemi-Sync, the sound used in the tapes, is built on binaural beats, with the Monroe Institute’s own layering of tones, plus a voice that guides you. That is why the course asks for stereo headphones. **Do the Gateway tapes work?** There is no scientific evidence that the tapes produce out-of-body experiences or the other states the course describes. Binaural beats themselves show small to medium effects on attention, anxiety and pain in studies, and many listeners simply find the tapes deeply relaxing. **Are the Gateway tapes safe?** For most healthy adults, listening is low risk if you keep the volume low and never listen while driving. If you have epilepsy, a history of seizures or a mental health condition, ask your doctor first. Keep reading - [Science Hemi-Sync vs binaural beats: what is different, which frequencies it uses and the evidence](https://shimmr.app/learn/hemi-sync/) - [Meditation Focus 10: what “mind awake, body asleep” means and how to reach it](https://shimmr.app/learn/focus-10/) - [Guides How to listen to the Gateway tapes: headphones, timing, order and what to expect](https://shimmr.app/learn/how-to-listen-gateway-tapes/) This article is for general information and is not medical advice. Binaural beats are not a treatment for insomnia or any other condition.