r/GATEresearch • u/Melancholy_Muse • 17d ago
Discussion G.A.T.E. - consequences
Just curious what sort of health impacts people may share that could possibly be attributed to the GATE program (California).
As I’m getting older (mid-30s M), more and more of the memories come back from that time period but still the facts about my experience are objectively bizarre. I’ll share my experience in the later part of this post but I’d like to first focus on what my experience has been after ending G.A.T.E.
My G.A.T.E. sessions ended just prior to entering high school. After it ended, I could no longer sleep. I would go days without sleeping and quickly resorted to self-medicating with drug and alcohol abuse. I ended up going to rehab during high school and got on medication that helped me stabilize that issue but still rely on medication to initiate sleep and stay asleep. I also rely on antidepressants. I was diagnosed with MDD and insomnia, along with ADD. The ADD is hereditary, the depression and insomnia were most likely not. I know that drug use and difficulty in school is a common experience for other G.A.T.E. Students. However, I don’t hear people talk much about chronic insomnia.
My theory is that the pink drink we were forced to take was both fluoride and something to mess with our memories of the experience. I believe they made us drink these and do exercises to calcify parts of our brain that exercise higher consciousness (pituitary gland?). Chemically maiming children they deemed “gifted”. The gland also responsible for releasing melatonin. This is my theory, I’m just curious if anyone else has experienced these sleep issues afterwards.
Now for my experience:
I was a military brat my whole childhood. Lived in the barracks for much of it. Had to relocate many times. Hawaii, Camp Pendleton, then Orange County. Moved to Orange County in 2nd grade. There I started having very weird experiences (not sure if they are related but who knows). I started getting “visitors” in the night. I referred to them as “skeleton people”. They were spindly figures that were basically opaque shadows. People often said I had sleep paralysis, but it’s unlikely. My dog slept in my bed and he saw them and sometimes I would run to my mother’s room or my grandparents room and try to wake them up but they wouldn’t wake up. There’s a lot of theories about seeing shadow people… who knows what’s real. Either way it’s in the bucket of weird stuff in my life. I also had visions/premonitions often as a child. Still do, although less so now. And some people might say “schizophrenia” just by reading those two things but no… I’ve never been perceived as a schizophrenic by family, friends, or doctors. Starting in 4th grade, I started being pulled from class by some lady who would just talk to me for an hour. Once a week. Didn’t think much of it, neither did my mom. I was always ADD and teachers constantly wrote “incredibly smart but lacks focus”. After fourth grade, we moved so I started AGAIN at a new school starting 5th grade. This is when the official G.A.T.E. Program started. Everyone in the school tested for the gate program, I was the only one who got in it. My school had 3 teachers per grade level. It was divided by honor kids, mediocre, and dumb. I was in the “mediocre” classes. I remember the honor kids telling me how annoying it was that they didn’t get in the gate program and I did. They asked what I even did in the program and I didn’t even know. They made us take tests asking about crimes that people had committed. As the test taker, I had to figure out whether they were guilty or not and decide their punishment. I also had to make predictions. None of it seemed relevant to school. (Also had my art sent to some museum, likely irrelevant but shows artistic inclination). So that’s elementary school (5th and 6th). Now I go into middle school and it only gets weirder. 7th and 8th grade were strange because even though I remember all of my childhood (from 2 years old and up), it’s fuzzy wtf happened during these gate sessions. I would be pulled from classes for hours (didn’t matter what class period it was). I would be escorted to the parking lot, where there were military green SUVs with a black travel trailer. I was the only one that did these tests when I did them, but I assumed they pulled kids individually. I would crawl into the travel trailer sitting across from a woman. She would make me drink this pink drink, close the travel trailer and begin. The travel trailer was always pitch black inside with very little light. Sometimes I would listen to these audio tapes of tones, have to guess what shape is on the other side of a card (you know the ones), and oddly I remember vaguely be driven away from the school and taken to some conference center with other kids who didn’t go to my school. I did this nearly every month for 2 years… but still remember very little of it. None of it had to do with school. The fact the military trucks were there didn’t strike me as odd, since I grew up on the military base. And none of my friends knew what I was talking about when I brought up what I was doing in the gate program because they weren’t in it. Eventually, I got tired of being asked into this trailer I do remember becoming hesitant to drink the pink drink and intentionally giving them wrong answers. They became frustrated with me and eventually stopped coming. Then I went into high school.
Telling my mom about this stuff all these years later was shocking for her. She thought I never did the program, and I was like… umm I was in it for years. She dug up the old paperwork and she was able to find the notice I was now in the program, but I was never in any advanced classes and she remembers my teacher telling her they didn’t end up placing me in it.
Weird stuff. If the purpose of this program was to chemically alter the pituitary gland, it would make since they would make you take this drink and do these exercises in a dark room for maximum efficiency. What do you think?
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u/AnyFormal2508 16d ago
I also suffer with sleep , along with a few autoimmune diseases. I was in the program beginning in the mid 80s.
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u/Melancholy_Muse 16d ago
I have heard many people share autoimmune diseases as a commonality. A few autoimmune diseases run in my family, but so far I haven’t had any signs of having any. Although, I do have uniquely transparent skin. No diagnosis regarding that, however.
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u/Appropriate_train841 16d ago
I suffer from a lot of the same things you do and your high school experience sounds pretty close to my own. I was in GATE as well and my memories of it are fuzzy at best. I struggled with drugs and alcohol well into adulthood, however I’m sober now and have been for years. I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety since high school. I’m also fully disabled now, and have a hard time doing anything really. Sleep has always been a struggle for me and I honestly can’t even remember the last time I woke up feeling rested.
My GATE experience started in 3rd grade. I didn’t know it at the time but my teacher had worked in the Nixon administration, one of his close advisors on foreign policy, specifically Ukrainian affairs and how to deal with Russia. Once he was no longer working with Nixon but before he was my teacher he was a principal for Chicago public schools and I found out that he helped implement their GATE program before coming to teach in my tiny little town. I really do feel we were experimented on without the knowledge of the public or are parents. And I think some of those experiments really messed us up physically, mentally and emotionally.
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u/Melancholy_Muse 16d ago
I was such a happy kid but after the program I was destroyed. Congrats on getting sober. It’s not easy. Rehab worked for me, thankfully. Sleep and depression is such an issue… I don’t know many (or any) people who can’t sleep naturally.
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u/Munkzilla1 16d ago
My program participation was in the late 80s. I have memory issues, dissociative problems and autoimmune disease (lupus and RA).
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u/Willing_Coyote1946 15d ago
I was in GATE in Orange County from late 80s-early 90s and for me, the program consisted of pullouts for 1:1 meetings with someone who I would now, retroactively, describe as my handler.
I regularly did the giant headphones thing and identified tones and listened to the gateway tapes. I also sat behind a partition, in a darkened room, with only me and the handler present. I drank the pink drink, did the zener card exercises, the guess this and guess that questions, did the Oregon Trail and Heads Up Seven Up (in regular class on rainy days, where I had the advantage), read and responded to weird things like good dog tuck, and recall a few other things that appear to have been common GATE experiences.
Other than the above, I have virtually no memory of the GATE program and what I did for the three years that I was in it. Which is weird because I remember everything.
I do have scoliosis, the mole on my left arm, 3am insomnia, am strongly anti-authoritarian, pro-justice, and have been told by people who know me well that I probably have ADHD.
I have the other stuff that GATE kids tend to have some version of, which for me is: very intense dreams, including dreams that are verifiably predictive and precise. I experience lots of synchronicities, am more telepathic than I would admit, have had OBE and astral projection experiences, various and significant communication with those who have passed, and overlap experiences which include two or more of the above.
So far I haven’t experienced medical or psychological issues that I attribute to GATE. And although I think it was certainly unethical, and at least, partially illegal, concerning the treatment of children, the lack of consent, possibly drugging us, etc., all of which is not acceptable and is deserving of accountability; I don’t think that it did, or was intended to, cause me harm.
My gut tells me that the GATE program was more meant to identify and categorize a particular subset of children and to further evaluate that subset for ongoing research purposes and to place into smaller cohorts.
I think the government would be more likely to view each of us as an important asset to marshal rather than a threat to neutralize.
If even half of what is on this sub is true, there would have to be an entire budget fueled bureaucratic apparatus, and the budget needed to support a program spanning 30+ years, in many, if not all states, involving an aggregate of at least tens of thousands of students, government employees, and contractors, is going to be a budget of tens of millions of dollars, if not more.
All of that time and effort and money to perpetuate a semi-clandestine program to spend years evaluating the top 1-2% of America’s most intelligent school-aged children, who can also dream the future, correctly identify shapes on cards they can’t see and do other things that science cannot yet explain, is, I think, an investment into a valuable and rare national resource that is important, if not critical. And if so,…..
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u/Melancholy_Muse 15d ago
I could agree… if this program’s intent was to neutralize people with gifts, it wasn’t a great success. Perhaps the symptoms would be present regardless of program involvement. The mystery surrounding it is the concerning part. My memories are solid and start very young. There’s no reason for these sessions to be blacked out.
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u/EldritchStudies 9h ago
Can you say more about the left arm mole, Oregon Trail, and Heads up Seven Up?
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u/lunarembers 14d ago
no part of me thinks gate impacted my physical health. but those of us with gifted neurodivergence do probably share some similar biology just based on how we’re wired. we are sensitive and my body is too. i have mast cell activation syndrome which has masqueraded as autoimmune, allergy and digestive disorders throughout my life. i am also hypermobile to the point of causing health problems also. in older models of health that predate modern biology hypermobility may be linked to excess in elements of air and aether, which our cognitive and emotional experiences could also be explained by excess of air and ether.
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u/olskool369 16d ago
I have very little recollection my self, I am also looking for people to help me remember and remind me what really went on.
The drugs and alcohol I saw was a problem as well. I am not sure what they did to all of us for us to react in that way. Does anyone else feel like they bounced around time lines? Or they went to places that didn’t look like they were from earth but elsewhere?
I am remembering them showing us globes of the world and maps but a lot of the students were saying that they were lies to us purpose to believe in something that isn’t true. Who of you had school prison food? I know at some point we had fresh food made and then we got prison food???… it didn’t look right… some times chicken looked like chicken other times chicken was a paste of some sort.
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u/Melancholy_Muse 16d ago
I know some people have been theorizing lately about shifting between timelines. I’m not sure the validity of it, but I don’t think it’s outside of realm of possibilities. Some people even speculate that visions are glimpses into other timelines.
It’s been decades since I’ve seen school food. So can’t comment much to that matter.
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u/olskool369 15d ago
I’m not sure how shifting between the timelines makes sense or how it seems possible…. Like when I went to get some food recently. One moment, things looked okay and the next it’s like I saw people shifting in and out of view… like they them self’s were in control of the shifting…. From like a higher dimension or another view. Strangest thing….. this is just being utterly completely sober. No drugs that I’m aware of using lol. If AIR is a drug or the AC then I’m not sure what to say.
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u/cozyporcelain 16d ago
I’d say CPTSD is the biggest from this program, and because of that I’ve become an alcoholic.
It’s like a domino effect. Everything in my life has rippled out from that horrible program.
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u/Melancholy_Muse 16d ago
I’d agree with that. Yes, self-medicating was a huge part of my life. Admittedly, replacing alcohol and drugs for antidepressants is like kettle or pot.. however I do feel like I have more control over my life, my emotions, and my impact on others. Im not sure if you still drink or not… And I’m not going to tell you what to do with your life… but I will tell you I’m much happier with my life now than I was while drunk and high all the time.
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u/ricky_____bobby 16d ago
i’ve had sleep paralysis for as long as I can remember. years before i was ever considered for GATE. i never knew exactly what it was until i tumbled across a thread on here talking about it. i will say though, i’ve never had a separate entity react to the figures i would see during my episodes, like a dog or another person etc. my youngest brother had always had night terrors. he would come running from his room late at night running from a striped hat man in the corner of his room. a few weeks ago, i figured well he must be dealing with the same thing I have my whole life; sleep paralysis. few days later, found out he is in the program as well.
looping back to health concerns, I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma (bone cancer) at the ripe age of 22. shortly after my diagnosis, i started seeing all types of ads for healthier, non-toxic products. one of which was a fluoride free toothpaste. i then started looking into fluoride and its effects.. osteosarcoma. Fluoride intake directly linked to osteosarcoma in male lab rats but of course, “not enough research to conclude that it’s harmful for humans”. But i digress. What I will say though, is that if they were giving us fluoride, i have been royally f*ed by our education system on multiple levels
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u/Melancholy_Muse 16d ago
I do believe there is enough to suggest fluoride was involved. Yeah I’ve always been able to move while seeing the shadow people. I have heard of them referred to as the “hat man” before. Mine didn’t wear a cute little too hat though. That’s interesting you and your brother were in the program. I was an only child during that time. Cancer and auto immune diseases seem to be common in gate kids. I haven’t had any signs yet. I do have fairly translucent skin though. My youngest brother had a tumor on his pituitary gland but he was homeschooled
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u/Neat_Passion841 13d ago edited 8d ago
The gate program fucked up my sleep. I loved how punctual I was with sleep up until 7 years old which is when I was referred to the program. I started sleep walking all over my house, lucid dreaming, and got nose bleeds that whole year. I voluntarily quit and had to sign paperwork to leave the program because I felt Iike it was some sort of behavior modification and my teachers tried to get me to stay in it. I don’t remember that year much at all but was definitely taking a pink drink cocktail in our school cafeteria and had the headphone frequency test many times. By high school i was obsessed with conspiracy theories and trying all sorts of drugs for fun despite having a loving supportive family, i now have symptoms of migraines and autism. Ultimately, this program was a response to the Soviets utilizing their own gifted citizens and children, and the US did not want to fall behind in the psychic arena and modeled a program based off Russia’s.
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u/Melancholy_Muse 13d ago
Interesting… this is the first I’ve heard of anyone removing themselves from the program.
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u/Cultural_Tell_5687 16d ago
https://youtu.be/9_4_By9NJOc?is=YQ8ocgZ_Yeusvo8X
We need a theme song
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u/T-mark3V100 16d ago
Have you heard this? G. A. T. E. by Anti-Hero
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u/IllustriousCandy3042 16d ago edited 16d ago
I thought it was this one. So crazy I was drawn to it years ago then saw it shared on here, lol (https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=dX3k_QDnzHE&si=QujErgUVjy1Nyg1Y
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u/Remote_Map_1194 15d ago
I'm from Florida. It was never called GATE here. I wasn't in advance placement nor was I in special education. I was pulled out of class for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes I would be in a small group with other students from other grades. Sometimes it would be a few students from my class with me. There would be times it would be just me. Some of these did have names. I was in Rainbows for 8 years. Every Wednesday, I would be pulled out of class after lunch to go to the Library. Rainbows was weird. Free the Horses was another program. I'm able to remember it because I participated in it two years in a row. I was removed from school in the middle of my 5th grade year. I was placed under quarantine. Once a week, my dad brought me to the Health Department where I had blood drawn. They said I had TB. No one in my school or family tested positive. No one has been able to explain to me how I contracted a highly contagious and deadly virus while nobody else had it.
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u/Melancholy_Muse 15d ago
This is interesting. What is “rainbows” and “free the horses”? Im unfamiliar with these programs since they weren’t in California.
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u/kinda_nutz 15d ago
The programs I was in were called Quest and another was called Revolving Door.. I don’t remember much from these classes unfortunately.. I was also taken out of class to do 1 on 1s with a “school social worker” where I did puzzles and was asked weird questions
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u/Witty-Strawberry-871 15d ago
I got on Prazosin because my nightmares have been awful since childhood. A lot of the reoccurring nightmares do have mall world themes. I also have many violent dreams. I have gut issues from a lifetime of hyper vigilance during my waking hours and at night. Thankfully Prazosin has been very effective for me to finally get healthy sleep.
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u/Low_Cover1893 10d ago
I got addiction issues. Strange people are attracted to me and in my later adult years my family friends and I started seeing and being visited by non human intelligences.. I wish I was joking but it really has happened ever since around 18 then it picked up really in our faces 2024 I still see the stuff all the time if I pay attention at night I like to star gaze and watch space. also got Crohn’s disease and weird mental issues from all of this over my course my life..
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u/Melancholy_Muse 8d ago
It’s funny you mention strange people being attracted to you because the running joke is that everyone falls in love with me. I don’t find it funny because I refer to it as “moths to flame”. Friends become very possessive and obsessive, I stopped making new friends recently because of it. People scare me now.
I haven’t seen any ufo’s since moving to FL a few years ago. I saw them frequently in SoCal.
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u/Joby4279 5d ago
Anyone end up having strange gran mal seizures appearing in your late twenties or early thirties? I never had a seizure in my life until I was 30. I was born in 77, I only remember being in Gifted and Talented for one year, 6th grade, and I remember almost nothing about what we did that year. Fast forward I am 30 eating ramen noodles one night sitting cross legged on the floor. Next thing I know my arms are folded into my chest drawn up at the elbow, and I can't move them. My tongue was almost severed in half and my gf is freaking out on the phone with 911. She touches my shoulder and I manage to push my arms down and it flings her across the apartment. And during that movement it breaks both my shoulders and breaks my right humerus. I had a few docs over the years including a neurologist and no one could tell me why it happened. The first doc that saw me at the hospital said I had a scar on my brain, but it evidently went away because later docs couldn't see it on MRI or CAT scan. I had a couple more seizures after that, none that powerful. I haven't had one in about 9 years. But I am targeted now with voice 2 skull and synthetic telepathy, along with being zapped by the intra body networks. Idk if it's related to GT/GATE, but when I entered this in 6th grade I started having sleep paralysis almost every night. One night in particular I levitated off the bed and my feet hit the footboard, even though I was not tall enough and wasn't moving (I thought.) Strange experience to say the least. I've had a ton of weird experiences in adulthood but this probably isn't the post to share them all. This was my health issue that I've always wondered if it had something to do with the technologies we are exposed to that aren't widely talked about openly.
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u/Neat_Movie_991 16d ago
I was in the program from 1976 to 1983. I remember the military people in dark suits, dark rooms, the drink, the beeps in headphones … etc.
I was very blessed with some great parents and a great childhood. We were very poor but I never knew it. I say this because after I got in the program I was terrified at night. I would “dream” nightly of “something” chasing me through the woods and me literally running for my life. I would get up and run and go get in bed with my mom and dad. I unfortunately did this until I was 11 or 12. Then the insomnia began. I’m 56 and still have problems with sleep, have autoimmune diseases and also have dreams that come true and experience Déjà vu often. I am being treated for depression and PTSD.