The CIA used this psychological meditation program. It has never been more popular

Sarah wasn’t expecting it To experience paralysis at 7 a.m. on a weekday during a contemplation In her house.

But in August, while listening to “The Gateway Tapes” — a collection of guided meditations aimed at helping people reach new levels of happiness. AwarenessShe says her limbs froze.

Sarah, who is in her early 30s and did not want her real name used due to privacy concerns, says the tapes – which she listened to on and off for several months – took her on a journey full of out-of-body experiences. “I’ve been in and out of time and space,” she says. She says it felt like a bad trip, even though she was sober.

She recalls a subsequent three-week period of disorienting instability that veered from feelings of intense spiritual connection to fears that she might never connect with others again. Looking back, she is relieved that she was not left “in some kind of spiritual psychosis,” but sees the events as part of an eventual positive “awakening” process.

Sarah isn’t the only one to report bewildering and terrifying experiences thanks to Operation Gateway, which has been around for more than 50 years and has grown in popularity since the pandemic. But, like many others, she also credits it with helping her quiet her mind and make radical changes in her life.

Operation Gateway was developed by radio broadcast director Robert Munro Claims To be a “journey of self-discovery” that can help people go “further, deeper and faster into different dimensions of consciousness.” Monroe founded the Monroe Institute in 1971 in Faber, Virginia. One consciousness called it the American “Hogwarts”. Content creator, facility The company claims to help convince people to get out of their bodies through in-person and virtual retreats, and even Spotify playlists, with self-hypnosis-style exercises backed by “binaural beats” — harmonic sounds with different frequencies played in each ear of a headphone. Proponents claim that binaural beats balance both sides of the brain and promote health. While there is still an absence of scientific evidence to support the institute’s methods, that has not stopped the military from taking an interest in Monroe’s mysterious courses, which also include pretense and “Remote viewing“- A form of clairvoyance in which one leaves the body to explore the real world using only the mind.

Since 2022, approximately 12,500 people, including military service members, psychonauts, and meditators, have joined Gateway Voyage programs online and in-person. This represents a 35% increase in the number of participants over the pre-pandemic period from 2016 to 2019. In 2025, there were 80 in-person retreats with 20 participants each, according to the institute. “For the first time in our history, we have reached the absolute maximum capacity for our campus retreats this year,” says Paul Citarella, executive vice president of the Monroe Institute. In-person retreats cost $2,695 while virtual retreats cost $1,150. Increased demand has prompted the Institute to host retreats outside of just Virginia in other locations throughout the United States, as well as in Romania, Italy, Switzerland, and Greece. Organization Expand the application It has been installed 386,000 times since its launch in July 2021, company data shows.

In June the institute Announce She is conducting what she calls “the world’s first study of higher states of consciousness” with neurofeedback company Neophoria, which claims the research could help people become “among the first humans in history to map, master, and return to altered states — on demand and with data.” About 333 Gateway Voyage alumni have signed up and will soon spend four weeks tracking brain state data while listening to meditations, paying $897 apiece.