What are the Gateway tapes, and are they CIA tapes?
The Gateway tapes are the Monroe Institute's commercial Hemi-Sync recordings, made by Robert Monroe's company in Virginia. They are not CIA tapes. The CIA's Star Gate collection holds paper: the 1983 Army report that analyzes the training, and Monroe Institute leaflets describing the program. No audio was declassified, because none was government property. The report is public domain; the tapes remain a private company's copyrighted product.
What the 1983 report says about the tapes
What the Monroe Institute's own leaflets say
Why they are not CIA tapes
Copyright, and what to read instead
Where to read it
What the documents say, and what people claim
What the 1983 report says about the tapes
The Army report treats the tapes as the core of the course. Page 5 describes beat frequencies "introduced via stereo headphones," played "at a virtually subliminal, marginally audible level," with "audible and perhaps subliminal suggestions by Bob Monroe" and masking sounds "such as sea surf." Page 4 quotes a Monroe trainer that Hemi-Sync can be induced "with the Institute's basic Focus 3 tapes."
Page 19 describes the first tape: the energy conversion box, humming "along with a chorus of such sounds that are contained on the Gateway tape," the affirmation, and the first Hemi-Sync frequencies. Page 22 notes that "Only one tape out of the many which make up the Gateway Experience is devoted to the techniques involved in the out-of-body movement." The report never counts the tapes or lists their titles.
What the Monroe Institute's own leaflets say
Two Institute documents sit in the same CIA collection. Bulletin GW22280 (CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210048-0) describes a typical session as a series of pre-recorded exercises heard through stereo headphones while lying down, supervised by trainers. It says Monroe received a patent for the method in 1975 and assigned it to the Institute, and lists course formats from a one-day Excursion to a seven-day Voyage held only at the Institute's Virginia center.
The program brochure (CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210024-6) describes recordings with many layers of non-verbal sound mixed on stereo channels, masked by pink sound like waves or wind. Both are the Institute's promotional material, described here and not reproduced. Neither is a government work.
Why they are not CIA tapes
Three facts settle it. The tapes were made and sold by the Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences, a private organization. The Army paid the Institute for training as a customer; the 1978 Gondola Wish report records a $2,000 pilot for three trainees (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000160001-3). And the CIA's records are paper documents that passed through Army and DIA files before the CIA inherited them in 1995. No recording is in the collection.
So "CIA Gateway tapes," "CIA Gateway workbook" and "CIA Gateway codes" describe things that do not exist. The workbooks and codes people search for are Monroe home-study materials. The only CIA-released Gateway document is the Army report and the leaflets filed with it. See Did the CIA write the Gateway Process report?
Copyright, and what to read instead
The 1983 report is a US government work, so it is in the public domain and anyone may copy it. The tapes are not. The Institute still sells its programs, and copies posted on file-sharing sites and forums are unauthorized. This site does not link them.
The documents: the tapes are the Monroe Institute's recordings, used in a course the Army paid to attend. The CIA holds a 1983 Army analysis of that course and the Institute's leaflets. It holds no audio.
The claims: that there is a secret CIA tape set, that the CIA "released the tapes," or that a download labeled "CIA Gateway" is an official file. None of this is supported. The tapes you find online are a private company's product, copied without permission.
Last updated November 4, 2026.
READ THE DOCUMENTS OFFLINE, IN LUCID DREAM TRAINING & JOURNAL
Lucid Dream Training & Journal bundles four of the declassified documents, readable offline, and uses its own original session audio.
The Gateway Process, answered: Page 25, Focus 10 to 21, the frequencies, click-out, who wrote the 1983 Army report and whether it works: short answers with page numbers and CIA record IDs.
Did the CIA write the Gateway Process report?: The 1983 Gateway report was written by a US Army INSCOM officer at Fort Meade and released by the CIA in 2003. What the cover memo and record page show.
What frequency does the Gateway Process use?: The 1983 Army report never lists Hemi-Sync frequencies by Focus level. Every number it does give, with page references, and what beat frequency means.