Nancy Moneagle: An Interview on Hemi-Sync, Peak Experiences, and Current Research
For my fifteenth birthday, Bob gave me something unusual. He counted me down into a very deep state. I had been working with the sounds and the rest of the method since I was fourteen, so this wasn't new to me, but that session went somewhere else entirely. I arrived at what I can only call a peak experience. I was the sky. I was the birds. I was the trees. The whole thing swept over me completely.
At the risk of sounding a little clichéd, it was the greatest love I have ever felt. A bright light moved toward me, and I understood it as Christ. For a fifteen-year-old, that landed as something extraordinary. It also gave me the wider vantage point we were discussing a moment ago, and that perspective shaped how I handled the ordinary difficulties of being a teenager. I'm grateful to Bob for it, and not only for those years but across the whole of my life since.
If I had been raised Buddhist, I suspect I would have met that light as the Buddha. A Muslim might have met it as Allah. Do you see what I mean? That's the real beauty of the method we teach. It carries across traditions and backgrounds. Want to become a better psychologist? Truly, come try it. You come away with sharper questions and a finer sensitivity, and there's more to it than that. People often report that they simply understand the person across from them better. I'm not talking about reading minds or anything in that territory. What I am describing is a genuinely heightened awareness of everything around you, other people included. You may notice you've become far more perceptive.
Erik: That's wonderful. With the time we have left, before we close out, is there anything we haven't touched on that you want people to know about the history and the range of your work?
Nancy: Of course. Let me keep it short. We are a research and educational organization, a 501(c)(3). Jim Lane, our director of research, is based at Duke University, and he has begun examining our SAM technology. SAM is something we're developing alongside Hemi-Sync. It stands for Spatial Angle Modulation, and it relies on a different kind of sound technology. Anyone can read more by visiting our website, monroeinstitute.org.
Jim is handling the rigorous side of the research. He's asking what is actually happening here, what SAM is doing, what Hemi-Sync is doing, and how we can put it to use. We are working with veterans who have PTSD. We also apply the sound technology with people struggling with addiction.