Gateway tapes shifting borrows a set of relaxation tracks that were never made for shifting. You play the Gateway Experience, Robert Monroe’s guided Hemi-Sync course, to reach Focus 10 (mind awake, body asleep) or Focus 12, then try to shift from there. Nothing shows the tapes take anyone to another reality, and the “CIA document” is an Army officer’s 1983 review of them, not proof. We think of the tapes as a slow relaxation course and a decent warm-up, nothing more. Start with the free official tracks, go in order, keep the sound quiet and never let them eat into your sleep.
Quick pick
Where Should You Start With the Gateway Tapes?
Tap the line that sounds most like you to jump to your answer.
- Never heard of the tapes before? See what they are and who makes them
- Ready to try them for shifting? Follow the steps shifters use
- Wondering if the CIA was involved? Read what the 1983 file really says
- Looking for a free, legal copy? Start with the official tracks
- Felt scared, dizzy or spaced out? Read the safety notes first
Keep reading below Focus 10 Focus 12 Focus 15 Binaural beats Questions
Shifters shorten desired reality to DR and current reality to CR, and our page on the basic shifting words and ideas explains the rest. If tapes are not your thing, you have plenty of other reality shifting methods to try. Whichever you choose, our safety guide explains what to watch for while you shift.
What Are the Gateway Tapes?
The Gateway tapes are the Gateway Experience, a home course of guided audio tracks. You lie back while a calm voice (Monroe’s own, on the first album) talks you through relaxing, humming and picturing things. Under the voice, you hear soft tones and a quiet hiss.
They really were cassette tapes once, which is where the name comes from.
The tapes were made to teach you out-of-body travel and what their makers call expanded awareness. Shifting came along decades later.
○ Who Made Them, and Who Sells Them Now
Robert Monroe (1915 to 1995) was an American radio executive who became famous for books about his own out-of-body experiences. His 1971 book, Journeys Out of the Body, is credited with making the phrase “out-of-body experience” popular.
He invented the Hemi-Sync sound method and founded both the Monroe Institute and Hemi-Sync, the company that sells the tapes today.
The full course has eight albums, called Waves, from Wave I, Discovery, to Wave VIII, Union. You get a guide book with each one. Hemi-Sync says you must use the albums in order, because each one builds on the one before.
On 8 October 2026, Wave I cost $86.78 as a download from Hemi-Sync’s own store. The Monroe Institute sells all eight Waves on CD for $944.30. Its online version of the course, Gateway Voyage Online, costs $595.
That adds up fast. So do not buy anything until you have tried the free official tracks and know you like the voice.
○ What Hemi-Sync Is
Hemi-Sync is Monroe’s name for the sound you hear under the voice. Each of your ears hears a slightly different tone, and your brain picks up the difference between them as a soft, steady beat. That is called a binaural beat.
Hemi-Sync says its sound is a patented technology that syncs the two halves of your brain. That is the seller’s claim, and the section on binaural beats below shows what research has found.
Hemi-Sync’s help pages also answer two common worries. The hiss on some tracks is pink noise, put there on purpose, so it does not mean your copy is broken. And while speakers work, Hemi-Sync says earphones are better for the guided tracks, since they keep the two tones apart and keep out room noise.
○ The Waves and the Focus Levels
Monroe gave each state you reach a number, called a Focus level. These are the ones you will hear about in shifting threads, as the Monroe Institute describes them.
- Focus 10, “Mind Awake, Body Asleep”, a very relaxed body with a fully alert mind, hovering just above sleep
- Focus 12, “Expanded Awareness”, which the institute describes as moving beyond the five senses
- Focus 15, “No-Time”, which it describes as entering “the timeless void”
- Focus 21, “The Bridge”, the threshold it says lies between the physical and the nonphysical
You start much lower than that. Wave I, Discovery, opens with Focus 3 and then teaches Focus 10 in six exercises, in this order.
- Orientation, the introduction, where you meet Focus 3
- Intro Focus 10, your first try at mind awake, body asleep
- Advanced Focus 10
- Release and Recharge, for letting go of old fears
- Exploration, Sleep, for exploring as you drift off
- Focus 10 Free Flow, where you practice everything from Wave I on your own
Along the way, Monroe teaches you a few mental “tools” that come up in almost every Gateway thread.
- The energy conversion box. Before you begin, you picture a strong box and put your worries inside it.
- Resonant tuning. You hum one long, steady note along with the voices on the track.
- The Gateway Affirmation. You repeat a statement at the start, built on ideas the course asks you to take seriously, such as that you are more than your physical body.
- The energy balloon. You picture a balloon of energy around your body, and many listeners say it feels protective.
What Is Gateway Tapes Shifting?
When you shift with the tapes, you do not use them for out-of-body trips. You use them as a guided way into a deep, drowsy calm.
Then you do what you would do with any other method. You might repeat an affirmation, play a short scene from your DR or hold the intention to wake up there.
The big question is which Focus level you should shift from.
○ Focus 10 Shifting: Mind Awake, Body Asleep
Focus 10 is the tapes’ name for that heavy, half-asleep moment when your body goes quiet but your mind stays awake. Wave I is built around getting you there.
Many shifters treat Focus 10 as a guided version of SATS, or state akin to sleep, where you loop a tiny DR scene as you drift off. You can learn SATS, the bedtime scene loop, step by step on our law of assumption page.
You can try your method from Focus 10. But the author of one of the most shared Gateway guides on Reddit says it works better as a base for the next level.
You also do not need the tapes to reach this state. Our awake methods guide shows you how to find mind awake, body asleep with no audio at all, on a rested afternoon rather than late at night.
○ Focus 12 Shifting: Expanded Awareness
Focus 12 is where most Gateway shifters say you make your real attempt. You will see the same line again and again in shifting threads. Shifters say you do not shift at Focus 10, you shift at Focus 12, and you can only reach 12 through 10.
So do not skip ahead. In the exercises, the voice takes you into Focus 10 first and only then counts you up to 12.
Once you are there, you add your usual method. Some shifters repeat a simple affirmation, such as “I wake up in my DR”. Some picture a small scene. Others use the tapes’ problem-solving exercise to ask how they could shift.
If you ever seem to hear an answer out loud while fully awake, read when to stop before you go any further.
○ Focus 15 and the Void
The Monroe Institute calls Focus 15 “No-Time” and says it is where you “enter the timeless void”. Shifters noticed that last word.
Many shifters link Focus 15 with the void state, the dark, empty stillness some shifters use as a stop between realities. Our void method guide covers shifting through the void state with no tapes at all.
Treat that link as the shifters’ idea, not the institute’s. Its void is about stepping outside time, not about changing realities. And shifters who use the tapes say you do not get to Focus 15 until the fifth Wave, so a beginner will not meet it for a long while.
○ How the Tapes Got Into Shifting
Monroe never wrote about shifting. But shifters point to a place in his books he called Locale III, and they read it as an early picture of a desired reality.
On one of the biggest Gateway threads on Reddit, the most liked comment says Monroe wrote about visiting another version of himself in another reality.
Gateway Experience shifting goes back at least to January 2021, when a YouTube video called “The CIA Document That ‘Proves’ Shifting is Real” spread through the shifting world. Even its own title puts “proves” in quotation marks, and you should too.
The next wave came in July 2024. One shifter’s posts about the tapes swept through r/realityshifting, and dozens of “what are the Gateway tapes?” posts followed.
A video about trying “the CIA gateway tapes” pulled in a new crowd in 2025. The talk has stayed steady since. In our own rough count, about five new posts a month on r/realityshifting mention the tapes.
How Shifters Use the Gateway Tapes, Step by Step
The course does not give you a shifting method of its own. These steps come from how shifters describe using it, with the seller’s own listening advice built in.
- Read who should check with a doctor first. It only takes you a minute.
- Start with the free official Orientation track, then Intro to Focus 10 (where to find them).
- Choose a time when you have slept well, like a weekend afternoon or your usual bedtime. Do not break up your night’s sleep with an alarm to listen.
- Lie down or recline somewhere quiet, with your headphones on and the volume low.
- Follow the voice. Put your worries in the energy conversion box, hum along during resonant tuning and let the count carry you down.
- Repeat each track until it feels familiar. Hemi-Sync says training series like this one work best when you listen several times. Shifters who rushed through one new track a day often say nothing sank in.
- Once Focus 10 feels steady, add your usual method. A short affirmation, a tiny DR scene or a quiet intention is plenty.
- Count back up with the voice, sit up slowly and write a few lines in your journal about what you noticed.
- Move on to Wave II only when you can reach Focus 10 easily, since Focus 12 builds on it.
If a course of eight albums sounds like homework, skip it. The Focus 10 section has a free way to reach the same drowsy state.
○ The 90 Degree Arm Trick
One of the most popular Gateway posts on Reddit is not about the tapes at all. It teaches you a way to slip into Focus 10 in silence.
Lying flat, you raise one forearm so it points at the ceiling, elbow resting on the bed. Then you let yourself drift toward sleep. When your arm starts to fall, the guide says you have reached Focus 10, and that is your moment to begin your method.
The trick comes from lucid dreaming. One commenter said they had first read about it in a lucid dream guide.
The guide then says to keep raising your arm until your whole body is numb and you cannot move. Please skip that part. That frozen feeling, where you are awake but your body will not move, is sleep paralysis, and it is your signal to end the session, never the goal.
Try a gentler version instead. Pick a rested afternoon, and start your affirmation or scene at the first heavy, drowsy moment.
If you do find you cannot move, wiggle one finger, then two, since small movements like these may bring you out of it sooner. Back sleeping matters too, because the NHS says lying that way makes episodes more likely. So if sleep paralysis visits you often, leave this trick alone.
○ What You Might Feel, and Did It Work?
Hemi-Sync’s own help page answers the question “am I supposed to see things?” by saying that “supposed to” does not really apply. Some people notice body sensations, it says, some hear or taste things, and some simply “know”.
You might feel heaviness, tingling, vibrations, flashes of light, strong emotions or vivid dreams. You might also feel nothing at all, especially at first. Falling asleep is common too, and Hemi-Sync says that is fine, since many of its exercises aim for the hypnagogic state, the borderline between deep relaxation and sleep.
None of this is proof of anything. A buzzing body is not a countdown to a shift, and a quiet session is not a failure.
Our guide to common shifting sensations explains where they come from. If a vivid scene ended with you waking in your own bed, our lucid dream guide has tips for telling a shift from a vivid dream.
If your hearing feels muffled or your ears ring after a track, read the volume notes further down.
○ How Long It Takes
Nobody can promise you a timeline. Shifters say it took them anything from a few weeks of daily listening to years of trying, and plenty never shift at all.
When one shifter said the tapes were a sure way to shift, another said no method is sure. They had reached Focus 10 only once in hundreds of tries.
So set yourself a limit before you start, such as a few sessions a week. If you notice you are trying harder, going to bed later or feeling down about it, take a week off.
A break is part of your practice, not the end of it.
Did the CIA Use the Gateway Tapes?
Not as far as the record shows. If you search “CIA Gateway tapes”, you will find a wall of videos about secret government mind training, but the real story is smaller, and it belongs to the US Army.
The famous file is a memo called Analysis and Assessment of Gateway Process. Its author was Lieutenant Colonel Wayne McDonnell, an Army intelligence officer, who wrote it for his commander on 9 June 1983. Its release was approved in 2003, and the CIA now stores it in its online archive, which is where the CIA label comes from.
Monroe’s company made the tapes, not the CIA and not the Army. McDonnell had taken the Gateway training himself, along with a doctor. He wrote the memo partly as a guide for other Army intelligence staff who had to take the training too.
Reality shifting is never mentioned in the memo, because that trend only began online decades later.
It reports no results either.
Instead, it sets out a theory of how Gateway might work and lists experiments the Army could try. It ends on a hope that, if those experiments were ever carried out, the Army might find a practical use for the whole system.
You may find it a fascinating read. It is just not evidence that the tapes, or shifting, work. Our full breakdown of the Army report walks you through what it says.
○ The Missing Page 25
If you flip through the released copy, it jumps from page 24 to page 26. People asked the CIA for the missing page again and again, and VICE reported that the CIA always said it never had page 25 at all.
In 2021, VICE published the page after the Monroe Institute sent it a full copy from its own files. The page turned out to be more of the memo’s theory, about “the Absolute” and the old advice to know yourself.
It holds no hidden results and changes nothing about what the memo is.
Do Binaural Beats Actually Do Anything?
Maybe a little, and probably not in the way the sales pages say.
The big claim behind Hemi-Sync is that your brainwaves start to match the beat. That is the part research struggles to show.
In a 2023 review of brainwave studies, only five of the fourteen studies found the brain following the beat, while eight saw no such effect. Our subliminals guide explains what binaural beats can and cannot do in more detail.
A second paper looked at what the beats might do for you. Basu and Banerjee pooled 15 studies on memory and attention in 2023 and found a medium-sized improvement overall. They also found that the studies did not agree with each other, especially for theta and beta beats, and said better research is needed.
We found no study that tested the Gateway tapes themselves, their Focus levels or shifting.
Our guess is that the calm voice, the slow counting and the habit of lying still for half an hour do as much of the work as the beat. That is our opinion, not a finding.
Where to Get the Gateway Tapes Legally
Start with the free official tracks. Hemi-Sync has put the first two tracks of Wave I, Orientation and Intro to Focus 10, on its official YouTube channel. The Monroe Institute’s own channel adds a free Gateway Voyage open exercise.
If you enjoy them, buy Wave I from Hemi-Sync’s Gateway Experience page. See how you get on before you think about the full set from the Monroe Institute store.
Wave I also comes in seven other languages, including Spanish, French and Mandarin, which helps if English is not your first language.
You will see Google Drive and MEGA folders of the whole course passed around in shifting threads. We do not link them. They are copies of a paid product, they keep disappearing after copyright takedowns, and you cannot know what is really inside a stranger’s download.
Some shifters also say YouTube uploads are “compressed” and work less well. We cannot test that. But the official uploads come from the people who made the tapes, and no random re-upload can promise you that.
How to Listen to the Gateway Tapes Safely
For most people, a Gateway track is simply a long, relaxing listen. But the two sellers publish their own warnings, and you should read those before any forum post.
○ Check With a Doctor First If…
Between them, Hemi-Sync and the Monroe Institute say to check with a doctor first if you have any of these.
- epilepsy, or a tendency to have seizures
- a hearing problem
- psychosis, a dissociative disorder or another mental health condition
- a medicine that affects your ability to relax
Hemi-Sync explains the seizure warning plainly. Seizures come from abnormal brainwave activity, and an audio method built to change brainwaves might not suit someone with that tendency.
Never listen while driving. The Monroe Institute also says not to drive for at least an hour after a session, or do anything that needs real focus or could put you or other people in danger. That includes riding a bike.
If a track ever gives you unusual physical or mental discomfort, stop it straight away, as Hemi-Sync itself advises.
○ Keep the Tones Quiet
The tones are meant to sit quietly under the voice, so you have no reason to turn them up. Keep your device at 60% of its top volume or lower, the simple safe-listening rule from the World Health Organization.
If your hearing feels fuzzy or muffled after a track, as some first-time listeners say, turn it down next time and give your ears a rest. If a ringing in your ears will not go away, put the tapes aside and go and see a doctor or hearing specialist, since the World Health Organization lists persistent ringing as a reason to contact a professional.
If you might fall asleep mid-track, set a sleep timer, and read our tips on sleeping with earbuds in first.
○ Sleep Comes First, and Paralysis Means Stop
The CDC’s daily sleep advice is 8 to 10 hours for teens, with adults needing 7 or more. Gateway tracks are long, so never stack several late at night, and keep them off school nights if they push your bedtime back.
If a track winds you up rather than calming you down, switch it off and sleep.
Some listeners online call sleep paralysis the “end goal” of Focus 10. We do not agree.
Sleep paralysis happens in the space between sleep and waking. You know where you are, but you cannot move your body or talk. It can feel scary, though the NHS says it does no harm. When it comes, take it as the sign that the session is over, and simply let yourself sleep or get up. If it keeps happening and bedtime starts to make you anxious, the NHS advice is to see a doctor, so tell a parent and book an appointment.
○ If the Tapes Scare You
Feeling uneasy during Intro to Focus 10 is more common than you might think. In one shifting thread, a listener said the track gave them anxiety. The reply said the feeling faded after six or seven listens.
You might get scared before you even press play, after reading scary stories from Monroe’s books or from forums.
You are allowed to stop.
The voice, the tones and the count have no power over you, and you can turn a track off whenever it stops feeling right.
If a session leaves you feeling spacey, Hemi-Sync suggests a few grounding tricks. Count slowly down from 10 to 1, drink cold water, splash cool water on your face and neck, or run cold water over your wrists.
Some posts tell you to push past the fear because it means a shift is close. It does not mean that, and you never have to push through anything that frightens you.
○ Skip the “Old Shifting Guide” Rules
A screenshot of a page from an old book went viral on Reddit as a “shifting guide from the 80s”. Some readers first took it for the Gateway guide book, but commenters soon worked out that it comes from a different book.
Its rules are the problem. It tells you to go without food and water for hours before you start, and its writer says they went hours without breathing, which no living person can do.
Never skip meals, water or breathing for any shifting method. Your body needs all three, and no real practice asks you to give them up.
○ When to Stop
Put the tapes away when any of these happen, and tell a parent or an adult you trust.
- The floaty, far-away feeling is still with you hours after a track, or the next day, or you feel strangely detached from your thoughts or your body.
- While wide awake, you sometimes feel unsure whether you are in your CR or somewhere else.
- While fully awake, you hear sounds or voices, or see things, that the people next to you cannot.
- You are losing sleep, skipping meals or falling behind at school because of the tapes.
- Part of you wants a rest from the tapes, yet you keep going back to them.
The first three need a doctor too. Hearing or seeing things others do not, and struggling to tell what is real from what is imagined, are both treated as signs of psychosis by the National Institute of Mental Health. We know of no study linking the tapes to psychosis, but a doctor should still hear about signs like these.
Some signs come from your body, and they need help fast. MedlinePlus lists trouble breathing, chest pain that goes on for two minutes or longer, fainting, a seizure, sudden dizziness or weakness, and a sudden change in your eyesight as medical emergencies. Any one of them means phoning your local emergency number at once. None of them means you are close to shifting.
Some shifters ask whether the tapes could tell them if they are meant to permashift. No recording can answer that for you.
If part of you is asking because life here hurts, please read our page for when staying forever feels like relief. Then reach out to one of the free helplines that answer day and night. If you are in danger at any point, ring your local emergency number.
Most of the time, your Gateway session will end with nothing more dramatic than a heavy, peaceful body and maybe a nap. Even if that is all you ever get, you will have learned to switch off on purpose, and that is a skill worth keeping.
Gateway Tapes FAQ
Can you shift with the Gateway tapes?
Some shifters say they have, usually from Focus 12 or Focus 15, but nobody has ever tested it. The tapes were made for deep relaxation and out-of-body practice, not for shifting, and no research has ever found anyone reaching another reality by any method. If you try them, use the tapes as a calm warm-up for your usual method rather than a promise. Our guide to what research says about shifting covers the rest.
Is Focus 10 or Focus 12 better for shifting?
Most Gateway shifters say Focus 12 is where they make their real attempt, and that Focus 10 works best as the base you climb from. You cannot skip ahead, though. The exercises take you into Focus 10 first, and Hemi-Sync says the albums have to be used in order, so start with Wave I and only move on when Focus 10 comes easily.
Is Focus 15 the void state?
Many shifters link the two, because the Monroe Institute calls Focus 15 “No-Time” and talks about entering a timeless void. That link is the shifting community’s idea, not the institute’s. Shifters who use the tapes also say Focus 15 only comes in the fifth Wave, so it is a long way off for a beginner.
Do the Gateway tapes work without headphones?
Yes. Hemi-Sync says speakers work too, but it recommends earphones for the guided exercises, because they keep the tone in each ear separate and block out room noise. With speakers, it suggests sitting or lying between them. Either way, keep the sound at 60% of your device’s top volume or below, the World Health Organization’s safe-listening limit.
Are the Gateway tapes free?
Part of them are. Hemi-Sync has put the first two tracks of Wave I, Orientation and Intro to Focus 10, on its official YouTube channel, and the Monroe Institute’s channel has a free open exercise. The full course is paid. In October 2026, Wave I cost about $87 as a download from Hemi-Sync, and the full set of eight Waves on CD cost close to $950 from the Monroe Institute. Leaked copies of the whole course get taken down often, and we do not link them.
Did the CIA make the Gateway tapes?
No. Robert Monroe’s company made them. The so-called CIA document was written in June 1983 by a US Army intelligence officer for his commander, after he had taken the Gateway training himself. Its release was approved in 2003, and the CIA keeps it in its online archive, which explains the CIA label. Reality shifting appears nowhere in the memo, and it reports no results.
Is using the Gateway tapes against my religion?
Only you can decide that, and it may come down to how you see the tapes. Hemi-Sync asks listeners to seriously consider ideas such as being more than your physical body and being able to communicate with intelligence beyond your physical consciousness. Some people are happy to treat the tapes as plain relaxation, others feel those ideas clash with their beliefs, and some listeners even say the tapes drew them closer to faith. If you are unsure, talk it through with your family or someone from your faith, and feel free to skip the tapes. Our safety guide also has a section on faith and reality shifting.
