A 1983 Army memo about binaural audio
In June 1983, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Wayne M. McDonnell wrote a report titled Analysis and Assessment of Gateway Process for the Commander of the Army Intelligence and Security Command. His assignment, in his own words:
“You tasked me to provide an assessment of the Gateway Experience in terms of its mechanics and ultimate practicality.” Analysis and Assessment of Gateway Process, W. McDonnell, 1983
The “Gateway Experience” is a training program from the Monroe Institute, built around binaural audio recordings designed to bring the two hemispheres of the brain into the same frequency and amplitude. McDonnell concluded the core technique was plausible, then spent most of the report building a physics-flavored theory for why it might work. The document was declassified and released through the CIA's CREST archive in 2003, sat unnoticed for years, and went viral online around 2017 — it is now one of the most-downloaded files in the CIA Reading Room.
- Title
- Analysis and Assessment of Gateway Process
- Author
- Lt. Col. Wayne M. McDonnell, U.S. Army
- Date
- 9 June 1983
- Prepared for
- Commander, U.S. Army Operational Group, INSCOM
- Status
- Declassified; released via CIA CREST, 2003
- Read it
- CIA Reading Room · full transcription (Wikisource)
Hemispheric synchronization and the beat frequency
The report's description of the audio mechanism is the part that holds up, because it's just the frequency-following response — a real, independently studied effect. McDonnell:
“If a subject hears a sound produced at a frequency which emulates one of those associated with the operation of the human brain, the brain will try to mimmick the same frequency pattern.” — spelling as in the original
And on how a binaural beat is generated:
“If the human brain is exposed to one frequency in the left ear which is 10 Hertz below another audible frequency played in the right ear, rather than hearing either of the two audible frequencies, the brain chooses to ‘hear’ the difference between them, the ‘beat’ frequency.”
The stated goal of the training:
“The objective is to relax the left hemisphere of the brain, place the physical body in a virtual sleep state, and bring the left and right hemispheres into coherence under conditions designed to promote the production of ever higher amplitude and frequency of brainwave output.”
Tuning the body to the planet's frequency
This is the passage the internet fixated on. Leaning heavily on the biophysicist Itzhak Bentov, the report argues that the human body is itself a resonator tuned near the same frequency as the cavity between the Earth's surface and its ionosphere:
“The entire body, based on its own micromotion, functions as a tuned vibrational system which transfers energy in a range of between 6.8 and 7.5 Hertz into the earth's ionospheric cavity, which itself resonates at about 7–7.5 Hertz.”
And that the Gateway process is meant to drive the whole system toward that band:
“… to cause the circulatory system, skeleton and all other physical organ systems to begin vibrating coherently at approximately 7–7.5 cycles per second.”
That 7–7.5 Hz window is the theta brainwave band and it brackets the Schumann resonance fundamental of 7.83 Hz — the measured resonant frequency of the Earth-ionosphere cavity, excited continuously by lightning. The report's framing is: get brainwaves into theta, coupled to the planet's own frequency, and the ordinary boundary between self and surroundings gets thin. Whether or not you buy the conclusion, the target frequency is specific, and it's the same one that turns up again and again in entrainment work.
Focus 10, 12, 15, 21
The Gateway program labels progressively deeper states of “expanded awareness” as Focus levels. Focus 10 is “mind awake, body asleep.” From there:
“Having reached Focus 10, the participant is now ready to endeavor to achieve a state of sufficiently expanded awareness to begin actually interacting with dimensions beyond those associated with his experience of physical reality. This state is called Focus 12.”
Focus 15 (“no time”) and Focus 21 are described as movement outside of time-space entirely. The report is candid that these are rare:
“Probably less than five percent of all participants in any given Gateway Experience actually fully achieve the Focus 15 state during the course of the approximately seven days of training.”
Out-of-body experience is treated as a related but separate outcome — and the report passes along the Institute's own caveat:
“Monroe Institute stresses that the Gateway program was not established solely for the purpose of enabling participants to obtain the out-of-body state nor does the program guarantee that most participants will succeed in doing it.”
Reading it straight
It's worth being clear about what this document is. It is one officer's speculative synthesis — not a controlled experiment, not a scientific paper, and not an official government finding that any of this is real. McDonnell himself frames it that way:
“This study is certainly not designed to be the last word on the subject…”
The wide theoretical scaffolding — a holographic universe, consciousness as an energy field, time travel in Focus 15 and 21 — is speculative and is not accepted science. What's on firmer ground is the narrow claim the whole thing rests on: that a binaural beat can nudge brainwave frequency toward a target. That effect is modest and well-studied, and it's all the tools on this site actually do. They generate the audio the report describes. They don't send anyone out of their body.
His overall verdict, for what it's worth:
“There is a sound, rational basis in terms of physical science parameters for considering Gateway to be plausible in terms of its essential objectives.”
The audio, free, in your browser
The Resonance Console builds the kind of session the report describes: concurrent binaural layers over a hard-panned stereo bus, a step sequencer to shift the target frequency over time, and ambient soundscapes to mask the raw tones. The landing page has a dedicated infrasound oscillator with a one-click 7.83 Hz Schumann-resonance preset. Both are free. Use headphones — the effect depends on each ear getting a different frequency.
Brainwave entrainment is used for meditation, focus, and sleep support. It is not a medical treatment, and results vary. If you have a seizure disorder or a serious health condition, check with a doctor before use.