(Monroe Institute Blog - September 14, 2017) THE STEP BEYOND Lifeline’s Back Story as told by Robert A. Monroe in 1994 Reprinted below is an article, One Step Beyond, written by Bob Monroe and published in the Winter, 1994, TMI Focus newsletter. It is the poignant account of how two powerful programs came into being—the LIFELINE residential program and the GOING HOME series: Throughout human history, there has been a common yearning and nostalgia for something deep in ourselves—our true identity, our origin. Many of us interpret it as a desire to revisit the site of our physical origin, our birthplace, and childhood. Of those who do, most come away vaguely unsatisfied and unfulfilled. They expected more but cannot define what they mean by "more." Then there are, among us ordinary people, those who sometimes pause for a moment to reflect on what it all means. But just for a moment. A growing number of us finally become astute enough to realize that one way or another each of us will eventually be "Going Home." To our original point of origin. Not Here but There, without keen knowledge of what "There" really is. It’s only a matter of time. Our new label for all that we do is the LIFE SPAN
system. This is in accordance with a determination to
provide a learning process for every human need. Our
newest and latest is a special kind of help for those
with life-threatening illness or injuries, and for their family and loved ones. It is appropriately labeled GOING HOME. This is a set of learning exercises on [CD], which offers a means whereby the individual can reduce dramatically the common fear of physical death. The result can be, at the least, greater tolerance of the situation. At most, the Going Home Subject may learn to control calmly the sequence of this critical event, even to the point where it becomes interesting and exciting. The Going Home system also helps family and friends better understand and accept the reality of the death process, so as to provide badly needed specific support at critical moments. It also included methods that can be employed to help them consistently adjust to and recover from the loss of their devoted one. It is designed for use at a private residence, in hospitals, hospices, and nursing care facilities. Three of the inescapable rules in our lives, the Laws of Change, Cause and Effect, and Experience, are the greatest of Teachers. The problem with most of us is that we tend to forget them in moments of emotional crisis. When Nancy Penn Monroe, my wife for twenty-three years and co-founder of The Monroe Institute, contracted breast cancer, I was sure that our methods and techniques along with conventional medical treatment would take care of the problem. Then, as her condition slowly worsened, the realization came that we should have some Death Insurance (the proper label, life insurances, was already in common misuse). There must be a means whereby we could be sure we would be together whatever took place. In checking my notes on my early nonphysical exploration, I came across my one visit in 1965 to what I then called the Park—a temporary recovery site for those distraught from the trauma of the death experience. At the time, I did not go back for further investigation because I saw no imminent need for doing so. Twenty-seven years later it was a different story. Perhaps it could indeed be the anchor for our Death Insurance if such were needed. It was easy to renew my contact with the Park, and I was astounded at what I found. It was a construct started by human minds far earlier than our recorded history and had been in constant service ever since. Yet our civilization seemed unaware of its existence. I gained again immediate friendships with those in service at the Park. No particular religious belief was involved. I learned that an uncounted large number of humans suffering post-mortem bewilderment and fright were constantly being "retrieved" and brought to the Park and its environs for rest and recuperation. When they were calm and rational again, each made a choice as to the next life sojourn from the many options available. Among such options seems to be truly a way to go on the route to our original or ultimate Home—if one is completely prepared to do so. Thus LIFELINE was born, one form of Death Insurance. It became a week-long seminar where individuals learn to go to Focus 27 (our label for The Park) as visitors and helpers. They learn to join in the retrieval process, finding the newly deceased who are frightened and confused, then escorting them back to the Park in 27. In doing so, they gather data from them for verification in our current physical world. After over two years, in September of 1993, over eighteen LIFELINE programs had been conducted with 270 participants attending. Each made an average of five visits to 27 during the training period. This equates to over thirteen hundred actual individual and separate trips to 27 by persons who are still physically alive. The program is still being conducted at the Institute headquarters in Virginia. It did indeed provide Death Insurance for me. Yet something was missing. It did not deal with the emotional and other factors of the death transition itself at the Here-Now level. Not just for the Subject, but for the family and loved ones. It took the deep personal experience of such an event acting as Teacher for this family/loved one to illustrate the massive need. Thus GOING HOME came into being as another form of Death Insurance, too late for me as a Family-Loved One, but perhaps not for others. GOING HOME is based on the LIFELINE program results as well as the many years of experience of two well-known friends, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, MD, and Charles Tart, PhD. It is Death Insurance that can be utilized at any time or any place, before the fact. It provides a means for the dying individual to become fully aware of 27, and to go there upon permanent departure if that is the desire. We expect it to be completed and available in December. I hope you don’t need it. But if you do ...