Just a short drive from the Fenton Inn is the world famous Monroe Institute. Like many people from the area, I had heard of the place but had no idea what it was. We had several guests that visited the place last year including the author Graham Hancock and I decided to sign up for an introductory seminar.
So what is the Monroe Institute? I suppose the first misconception to dispel is that it has nothing to do with the former President James Monroe who lived near Thomas Jefferson just outside of Charlottesville in the next county over. The place is named after Robert Monroe who founded the Institute and developed the technology. He was a radio and broadcast engineer who created a system of sounds that facilitate brain wave changes for the purpose of meditation. He started the idea of the out of body experience (OBE) and took a scientific or nonreligious look at meditation and exploring the brain from with in. I am sure the website they have could do a better job answering more detailed technical aspects.
So the next question I get, now having gone through a short program... Does it work? I will say yes, it works but with an explanation. I think when people ask this, they assume that after a single session, I would have discovered all the hidden mysteries of the universe in an easily explained formula or ten simple rules. Understandably in our era, we watch shows where a guy goes into the woods for a hour and expects to find a bigfoot. In a day in the woods, you might find a deer, but most people will miss 99% of the wildlife and getting a good selfie with a bear is nearly impossible. The technology is designed to get you in the zone, as if you had a decade of meditation practice. It opens a window and what you see or don't see through this window is subjective.
We had a second session after lunch. Not to sound too much like my daughter's assessment of school, but I think lunch was the best class. The group had 27 people, some of whom had come from other states and countries. It was fun sharing stories and finding out what brought people to trek so far to Nelson County. There were a few other people from nearby, and I wonder if the Lourdes Effect might have any bearing on my ability to see things during my sessions. (The Lourdes Effect is the fact that the farther a person travels to the healing waters, the more powerful the possible cure, and conversely, no locals from Lourdes report any effect. Thus the struggle of a long pilgrimage makes one more a believer than a nearby person who had Lourdes water from the sink faucet with no effort to get it.)
A large quartz crystal is a focal point of the lawn. There was a lot to take in all at once. In the darkness of a little room, listening to phased sounds, it was easy to relax and day dream with out distraction. It would take a while to get good at it and harder still to explain to anyone who has not tried it. All and all, a fun day, with included lunch and interesting people and wonderful staff. Another strange fact, I went 8 hours with 27 people and no one used the phone, no phones rang, and even in the slide presentations, no one lit up their face by checking a text. That maybe be more unusual than anything I saw during meditation.
