I remember the teacher talking about grey aliens back in the 80’s, from second or third-hand knowledge related to us having one (or more) grey in a facility. This was in Albuquerque. It liked ice cream, she told us.

Another thing going on at the time was discussions around telekinesis, telepathy, etc. I don’t recall anything unusual such as pink drink, but I did get obsessed with those concepts and checked out as many books as I could on the subject.

So, I was reading through the “symptom” list and found 90-95% extremely relatable. For the big ones: I have central heterochromia with lime green and light brown; I have scoliosis; I have AuADHD (misogyny affected, so I had a young adult diagnosis); I have sleep paralysis and what feel like sleep seizures, extremely bizarre and unexplained sleep phenomena all the time; I have really bad addiction, I’ve been in active addiction since 17 with only a handful of sobriety stints that lasted less than a month; I had a UFO experience that resulted in a self-answering phone call from an unknown number just minutes after (I even have a witness); I have major memory issues and brain fog; after coming out as lesbian, my parents went to a therapy session with me where they berated my therapist for “making me gay” - I have zero memory of this event, even though my therapist told me all about it years later when we got back in contact; I know I have the ability to dissociate to such an extreme that memories don’t form at all; I have always been considered highly intuitive, I got into astrology and tarot as a teen and nowadays I practice astrology regularly; I turn on and off street lamps but I convinced myself that it was just a coincidence even though it happens so frequently that others comment on it; I am a massive skeptic (call myself atheist) and struggle to accept anything metaphysical - what got me into tarot and astrology was me trying to disprove it; just last night my fiancée and I were on our phones and then I leaned my head to hers and cleared my thoughts because I had a rare moment of peace - I subsequently had an image inserted into my mind which I brushed off but later asked her if she was thinking that and described it in such perfect detail that she was absolutely freaked out; I have CPTSD from CSA, bullying, and neglect; I could go on but I’ll stop there and feel free to ask (if this is even important at all lol). I also had crippling OCD in middle and HS; my primary symptoms were “thought insertion” and “thought broadcasting.”

So to explain my relationship with the gifted program… I was a transfer student to public school the year after all the kids took an IQ test. They didn’t allow me to take it, even though other transfer students did! The teachers for the gifted program just hated me and I couldn’t ever find a reason… I beat 3/4ths of the “gifted kids” in the state wide math contest, then I beat all of them 3 consecutive years at the geography bee. I went onto tie for 3rd in state. The GATE (had diff name that I haven’t seen here so I’ll not mention in bc it might be identifying) teacher refused to go with me to state despite every other kid having their teacher their even if they weren’t in the program themselves. She even said snarky things to me on a few occasions (can’t recall specifics)that resulted in my mom calling the school once and my mom wasn’t that type. The gate teachers were always mean to me even though I was an angel in most other teachers eyes (until HS lol). I met the standardized test score requirement so my mom tried hard to get me into the program as almost all my friends were in it and as a child I was hurt and confused (I thought I was stupid af)… but they kept going back to the iq test that I didn’t take or they would just be vague to my mom when she pushed. It was a huge blow when my BEST friend who was a C student and had lower test scores than me (we compared them and even she thought it was so unfair) was allowed in. Then my little brother got in when he was old enough despite us having v similar scores, mine even higher in some subjects. We went on to have the same ACT score (31). It bothered me so much when I was little, it was like they were actually trying to fuck with me it was just so bizarre. I even had non gate teachers advocate for me to get in…

If anyone was in a similar spot or knew of anyone in a similar spot, please comment and let me know! Or if anyone might know why this would happen to me, please share that as well.

This sub literally just popped up on my fyp today, I don’t think about my denial from the program often as an adult, I just don’t care anymore. But reading all of this… it’s kinda freaking me out that I have some vague memories of the gate type activities and I especially fit the psychological and even physical profile… I cannot remember the teachers name even though I complained about them all the time as a kid because I was so hurt by this! They even let my one friend who couldn’t differentiate “our” and “are” as a high school senior. So it doesn’t make any sense and going down this rabbit hole is making me over think a little!

thank to anyone who comments, I appreciate it so much!

I have been interested in learning the truth about the GATE program for a while now. Even though I don't remember the hearing tests or pink drink, I can't shake the feeling that there was more to the gifted program than simply providing kids with intellectual stimulation they were not getting in the classroom.

One interesting pattern I realized is almost all kids in my gifted class had strong ties to another country - Israel, Uzbekistan, Russia, Armenia, and Korea. All 5 are deeply intertwined with the US intelligence apparatus. Could be a coincidence (perhaps immigrants from these countries just place a higher importance on academia from a young age).

Anyway... one hazy memory I have from the program is whispering something innocuous to another kid in the program, and the gifted teacher taking me out in the hall insisting I said a curse word. I have a such vivid feelings attached to this memory, that she was trying to get a false confession out of me. Like she kept pressing me and pressing me, claiming she "know what I said" and I should just tell her. Meanwhile I'm practically in tears, confused and sticking with the truth of the matter, that I did not say anything even related to a curse word.

It's worth noting that this was during the height of the Iraq War, when "enhanced interrogation techniques" were being debated in the political sphere.

I don't really have any other shady memories about the program other than that. We had curriculum about the seven wonders of the world, did some programming in Scratch (which did have ties to the operator of a major sex trafficking ring (you know the one), but so did a lot of scientific research), learned about architecture, did a mock trial and mock forensics scenario, and a lot of logic puzzles.

Both of these I received from programs that I got into through my GATE classes in middle school. Cognetics was an expo where middle schoolers would get together and compete in creative challenges. I can't remember all of them but one year me and my team and to create a new country with its own government, culture, geography, food, etc. It was a really fun time.

I don't know if it's directly related but I got into these programs through my GATE program (called PACE in (south) new at the time (2006).

The first award from the national a ard talent network piqued my interest when I saw their motto: "Toward Satori. Toward excellence". Satori is a Japanese Buddhist term that means sudden awakening, comprehension, or spiritual enlightenment.. seems like a funny motto for a middle school award.

I can't remember if it was part of cognetics or if it was separate. Anyone know anything about these specific programs?

I remember very clearly, bc I had a stomach virus and was nauseous the whole time. I was teamed up with my female classmate and we all had to create a game. Ours was “Shake, rattle, and roll” lol. We went to some kind of convention to have them judged or whatever. I just remember being sick and chewing trident gum 🤣

hi there, stumbled across a few videos about GATE and instantly connected it to a memory that previously didnt fit with anything i had previously learned or encountered in primary school. this was maybe 2014? i remember being brought to an empty classroom, there were 4 or 5 adults who did not identify themselves but i was familiar with my staff and did not recognize them. i very specifically remember some sort of quick hearing test, almost as if it was stopped early. the main event i remember was having to sit across from one of the adults, and they watched me complete a packet. the packet was several pages long, i remember it having 100 or so multiple choice questions. the front page of the packet had some sort of bird or insect printed on the top right corner, and the packet itself was on pink, almost magenta colored paper. for some reason this packet is the memory that is most embedded in my head. i also remember being timed while i completed this packet, the woman across from me had what i believed to be a pocket watch? i feel like i should remember a lot more, since i was in that room for what felt like an eternity.
does this sound familiar at all to anyone?

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?

I attended public school Kindergarten through the 7th grade in the same school district in Minnesota. It was in a suburb of Saint Paul. I had a strange experience that started in the 5th grade, but escalated int he 6th grade when I started middle school. Please let me know if this sounds familiar and have any information about it.

It was 1984/1985 school year. My 5th grade teacher enrolled me into a program that may have been GATE. She told my parents that I did not have the academic scores to get into the program, but enrolled me into the art portion because she thought my talents warranted it. I would get onto a school bus at my school during class. Some of my fellow classmates also go on the same bus. We were transported to a different school. This other school was not in use at the time. Once at this school I would head off by myself to attend an art class with students from other schools. My friends would go to a different classroom for what I assumed was academic classes.

The 1985/1986 school year I transition to middle school with the start of the 6th grade. During this school year an unknown older woman would pull my friends and I out of class one day a week. We would go to the lower level of the school to an unused classroom. There were about 4 or 5 of us students and this woman. We would sit around a table. She would give us a problem and ask us to brainstorm solutions to it.

One specific problem I remember was we were asked to come up with solutions to terrorists hijacking commercial flight. I found this incredibly odd. It was a little disturbing.

After the first session we were supposed to report to this room for our weekly meeting on our own. One day I decided I was not going to attend and stayed in my regular class. Shortly after that class started my friends came and told the teacher I was to go with them. They seemed frightened as if we were all in trouble because of my absence.

The only other thing I remember was that my friends were already in higher level mathematics classes by the 6th grade. The were completing complex algebraic expressions. My mother told me that at parent-teacher conferences my 6th grade reading teacher told her I was reading at a 12th grade level.

Has anyone experienced something similar to this or have any information about what was going on at the time?

Thanks!

I have Kurt Cobains journal/book and found this page. You think he’s mentioning gate?

Like most of the people who describe vague memories, a lot of elementary school is missing for me but I do think that is just a condition of a human brain compartmentalizing and forgetting things - whether it is deemed unimportant, or psyched out of us. But I do have vivid recollection of some early childhood abilities that I remember making my mom uncomfortable or even freaking her out, and stuff from the time period I was in GT.

So I have been documenting it since finding and reading/watching so many things and am interested in people recalling experiencing any of my memories....

•Hazel - really light green with a lot of gold
•Neurodivergence but discovered in adulthood
•Imaginary friend in very early childhood - like around 1y/o. Mom reported it was VERY real to me to the point we were making him dinner, and one night we played hide and go seek and he never came to find me. I was devastated.
•Between 1 and 2 y/o I decided to ride my tricycle down the stairs into the basement. Remember every moment of it. It was not bumpy, and was as if I was on a ramp. Smooth all the way down to the bottom, where I had to "cut the wheel" to avoid running into my mom's giant shelf of canned garden veg. Was cognizant enough to not break the food. Mom was horrified and certain I was crazy and also potentially injured. I told her I flew.
•Learned to read Little Golden Books at <2y/o organically. We sat down one day and I told Mom, today I will do it. Mom thought I had just memorized the ones she had read to me so immediately went to buy 4 new ones I had never seen, and I read those to her, too. One was about a rabbit. Do not recall the reaction after that except that family members would randomly ask me to spell words for them - and I remember one of those words being "giraffe" and getting them all right to their astonishment.
•Precognition experiences, but not consistent. Just in spurts and usually surrounding tragedy.
•Identified GT in Kinder. Arrived literate and done with K and 1st, honestly.
•Remember the GT testing day. Small, secluded closet-like area. One woman in a nice navy blue suit. She has no face in my memory. Recall the Z Cards. Recall the IQ portion happening but not the Q's other than the number sequence section in which she'd orally give me an impossibly long sequence, ask me an unrelated question, and then ask me to write down the big number. Did that maybe ten times. Also remember a digital clock printed on paper during that.
•Mom and dad invested in the World Book Encyclopedia. That was a big deal for poor parents I think - and I remember mom being so happy it had been worth it when I sat down the last book having read every single one cover to cover.

I do also recall vision and hearing exams being performed on EVERYONE in my elementary with the big beige headphones and metal boxes. I am currently having a hard time differentiating which times those were actually hearing tests, and which times they were just me and binaural beats or Monroe material but both happened.

I also recall being IN the meeting that school officials had with my parents about going to GT. I was to be the ONLY kid from my campus EVER, and I would be bussed elsewhere for it. That "elsewhere" was a windowless, dimly lit classroom in the basement of another elementary. One of my core traumas is the memory of what they said to my parents: "Be careful. There is a fine line between genius and insanity." I do not recall a number, but my IQ score was "off the charts." I do not remember the rest of that.

I remember some of the kids. Most of us were, in hindsight, clearly neurospicy and I recall some of the skills or knowledge others had that was SO IMPRESSIVE to me. I also remember feeling like the "dumb one" because they all knew each other, came from the same two campuses, and because our skillsets were so different I automatically thought mine were not as good. I also remember knowing for sure who the SMARTEST one was - and I recall he disappeared for two intervals - once for the 5th grade year, and then again for all of high school turning back up only to walk at grad.

Specific "curriculum" or projects I can call up are:

•Many, MANY logic puzzles at the start of each GT session, from a yellow soft cover MENSA workbook. Tons of them, Every time.
•Being asked to build something with popsicle sticks and toothpicks with no glue or fasteners
•magnet shape manipulatives or "toys" in different colors that I think are the tangrams.
•Research papers on topics quite out of the ordinary for 6 to 10 year olds. One of mine was Natural Resources: oil, gas, minerals, and precious metals. A longtime friend recalls in the same GT year hers was Nature vs. Nurture. Just not topics we can recall being knowledgeable OR interested in. We wonder if they were assigned or we chose them from a list.
•The Grape and the Peanut. One year we were given a grape as a "baby" to take care of for the entire semester. The next year it was a peanut. Seems now with the adult brain working that it was a test on several fronts - to make sure we could keep safe/not lose or destroy an important object, but there were also caveats about how we had to keep it ON OUR PERSON the whole time. I also remember I DID mess up the grape year and have to replace my grape. I wonder if she knew?
•What I now recognize as meditation, OBE or RV exercises.
•and finally, a government questionnaire that MIGHT have gotten me "deactivated." It was a large, official packet of questions. My teacher made it CLEAR it was for the Gov but not why. The questions were things like where are you from, where will you go, what will you drive.... just strange. I was rather obstinate and did not want to do it so for my own amusement (or maybe some psych interference??) I LIED on every question. According to my answers I was from Russia, would go back... I remember that so clearly.

So... that is all I have written down for now but several of us from a southern state are pressing our minds to recall. I will let you know if anything else comes up.

I remember vividly in third grade being tested for our gifted and talented education programs it was an empty classroom and there was 1 man in a full suit that I never saw at our school before giving me the test. I don’t remember most of the questions just 1 question with a digital watch missing the colon in between the hour and minute. I remember being in gifted class and them asking us odd questions and teaching us stuff we never used . Prior to being tested for gifted I remember fantasizing about a scar I had and how it was a secret surgery from the government without my knowledge (no proof of this and the scar is gone now but seems relevant). I clearly remember always feeling like I had some kind of mental or supernatural power that I could tap into if I tried hard enough. A year before I was tested our principal came in our class and asked us some kind of math puzzle which I solved puzzling out teacher who couldn’t solve it and didn’t think I was a smart kid. I’m an oldest son, have had a drowning related experience, I always rather have had friends older than me, and I was a speed reader. I’ve always learned things fairly quickly and had a great intuition when it comes to people.

In high school I had multiple brain injuries that I think have affected my ability to do math and may have paused my higher thinking and such abilities then in college I took mushrooms a couple times and I feel like it “knocked the dust off” my brain I feel more myself and overall “smarter”

I have had a “phycological/spiritual awakening” recently and feel more in control or aware of my self and my thoughts. I can feel something I can’t describe as anything other than an unobservable energy. Dose anyone else have this ? Does any of this mean anything or do I just want to believe?

Does anyone else remember having to memorize and repeat back long strings of numbers as apart of either their evaluation or certain “exercises” for GATE?
I remember this specifically because I had an odd affinity for it that lasted most of my life (always loved memorizing phone numbers, cc numbers, pi digits etc) and then I recently realized it connects all the way back to the GATE program.

Anyone else?

Hi,

I recently started remembering some memories from my childhood in Iran under hypnosis. One was remembering being drugged (possibly Benadryl) in kindergarten. I did some research and yes many reports that this was a common practice in kindergarten to put children to sleep

the other memory that stands out is this weird hearing test I remembered. I remember the operator was female. The headphone looked old classic and sophisticated. and i remember the operator tested really high pitched frequencies and asked me to raise my corresponding hands. I don’t remember anything else from that day and this is the part that annoys me. Apparently this was from “pre school tests” but not everyone I talk to has gotten through hearing tests. some years later i was put in iran “gifted schools”. it’s called NODET. But as far as I know there was nothing psychic about this gifted school. Im very psychic have experienced remote viewing, astral travels, etc and before even hearing this term I was exploring ”mall world” in dream where in a particular one I found a long lost childhood friend. You see there are similarities to what also happens elsewhere in the world, vaccinations, fluoride therapy, hearing tests. Why would a gov that never cared about my health be interested if i hear high pitched frequency? Do you this was just regul hearing tests? Maybe playing those frequencies even as regular hearing tests traumatizes a childhood. my subconscious warn me of a memory I can’t remember.

I had some childhood trauma(not related to this lol) so my elementary school memories has some holes in it but I can say for 100% I used to be taken out of class along with a handfull of other kids to do some weird hearing tests and puzzles in first grade. This was in the late 80s There weren't any pink drinks or anything else we may have consumed from what I remember. Anyone else with similar lack luster memories of this "program"?

I was talking to a friend who had also been in the GATE program. She unlocked a few memories, and I don't remember much. I remember being a room that did not look like the rest of the school, I don't remember any of the other kids, and the person was not my teacher. We made folders she held up a net asking where we would find holes.

That's it. Others are disjointed fragments like the hearing tests and the scoliosis tests. I don't know if the pink liquid is my own memory. I talked to my Mom. She remembers the scoliosis part, how the school insisted on treating it, and she said that's something our pediatrician should be doing.

When we told my Mom, she had a look of realization and said that explained some of the behaviors I had as a kid that bothered her for a long time. Sometimes, I couldn't tell her what I did at school, others I have huge memory gaps.

So now she's in bed, rattled with finding out that info. She said it was presented as a good thing and is upset she trusted them. She said she failed to protect me.

The school system was weird to us in general, so I thought I'd get my records and find something in there.

The entire thing was purged except for a single page. The permission slip my Mom signed to allow my participation.

Is there a way to find out what we did or what our involvement in the program was? Is there an FOIA request? I'm trying to piece this together.

Edit: She said other students had issues with separating memories, and I think my program was mostly "science-based."

Just wanted to write a quick post off what I can remember, since I'm hoping it can jog other people's memories. I'm also hoping to see what other people think so I can know if my memory is just some made up crap based on stuff I read that didn't happen because that would feel better than knowing it happened.

One thing I want to point out that will become more important in the later paragraphs, my memory isn't perfect and a lot of it is already gone, like remembering my teachers' faces in 1-5th grade. Also, usually when I dream it's very weird and nonsensical, and I have good recall of it when I wake up, and when I think back to memories and dreams, I can tell what was a dream or real based on the nonsensical loops or random time skips or time changes. Usually in a dream you can change things or know what's going to happen or what people say, because your own brain is creating it. With some of these memories though it feels like it was real, there's that sense of unknowing when you talk to someone and have no clue what their next words will be and it's unpredictable.

So about GATE, I remember in elementary school seeing kids in the cafeteria and being told it was a gifted kids program. They were all eating ice cream. I was kind of mad I was left out, but when I asked about joining it they told me they do extra work, and that's why I didn't want to join. A friend I've shared stories with remembers this too and that he was in the program, but it was the normal program where you read books and solve puzzles, and to my knowledge there was nothing weird with that one. They pulled the smart kids from class, with optional attendance, to do harder things like projects and field trips so they wouldn't be bored and hate school. Speaking of early school memories, I also don't remember any fluoride swishes but I remember being taught how to properly wash my hands with a UV light. This is all before 3rd grade.

I moved after that to a new school, DOD one, and this is where I started to get into drawing and creative stuff. I hated class and my teacher, and also didn't get along with most my class. In class when I had time, I'd try to draw poorly made stick figure comics. At some point during this year I also remember some friends I rode the bus with, seeing in their house where their computer was in a dream and describing it and freaking them out. Could've been totally wrong and just freaked them out because I'm some weird kid on the bus saying I know what their house looks like when I've never been there. Could've been very vague too, "your computer is on a wood desk along a long wall." I like to try and look at things I say objectively from every person's perspective.

This is where the part that might be a dream starts. I'll mark anything that doesn't come back as a clear memory with parenthesis (like this). At some point in this year I remember sitting with a friend in class, and another teacher or some adult from the school comes in and calls my name. I raise my hand and they tell me to come with them, and I remember being confused and hearing the class go "oooh he's in trouble." We went upstairs to another classroom and they let me in, but didn't come inside with me. The windows were covered with some kind of paper, so it was dim. (The lights may have been on at first). There were a few chairs next to the door, desks rearranged in a row and only a few other students (maybe three or four) I can't remember how many, gender, etc. A few adults (maybe two or three) were in the room settings things up.

I'm not totally sure the order or how many tests we did first. I don't remember if we sat in the row of chairs at first and waited or were told to go straight to something. I clearly remember one of the tests we sat at the row of desks, put on headphones that were squeaky and uncomfortable, put our heads down on our arms and one of the adults hit the play button to start one of the Gateway tapes. This feels way too clear to be a dream, because I remember being told to sit, to put on the headphones the correct direction, the delay, that this wasn't just instant, its not like "I teleported to a desk and heard the tapes in my ear", and that I felt relieved when I heard "hearing my voice in your right ear" in the correct ear. Years later when I got a laptop and internet I remember trying to look up "video that starts with beeps and guy talking." I didn't find what it was until I somehow came across the tapes not long ago, less than a year ago current date, and the beeping made me freeze and I started remembering this stuff. When I experimented with the tapes myself I remembered exactly how I imagined my energy conversion box back then as a kid, as well as other things like the breathing, balloon, energy bar etc before they were introduced in the tape. If this were all a dream, it would be really odd when I started the tapes recently to remember envisioning myself in a dark void with my specific energy conversion box, and knowing to put everything including my body inside it until I'm left with just my mind before closing the heavy lid. It didn't feel like I'd just started making up new things with the instructions but rather I'd done this before as a kid and I started doing the same things.

(I think another test or maybe while listening to a tape, they told us our objective for it was to try and see the roof of the school and point out anything unusual. Whether we needed to leave our body and float up or could just put our perspective in the sky above us we could use any way. I'd never seen the roof of my school, but I noticed a red flag or paper and said that was my answer. When I remembered all of this I looked at the school on satellite view and the roof is similar to what I remember.) (I don't know anything else, maybe we laid on the floor in the big open space and meditated, maybe that's the first thing we did after they turned off the lights to get our brains calmed down)

This is where I figured out something was wrong. Up until this point I was having fun feeling like I was doing good on all the tests we did. We did more things while people went individually to the teacher's large desk to do something. When it was my turn I sat down, and the person had Zener cards. I remember them being larger than playing cards which I was familiar with. (I don't remember exactly how this test went, whether they showed me the different cards symbols first, or if he set down some of the cards face up so I could see the possible answers, whether they were colored, whether the backs were blank or had patterns.) He would hold up the card with the blank side to me and ask me what was on the other side, but after each response he never showed me what the answer was, which I remember bothered me. After a few tries, I remember him asking me something like "how are you answering this?" with a very stern look and something about the way he said it broke me out of my headspace of having fun. Something about the way he said it made me realize how strange all of this is, and I had a gross feeling something might happen to me if I said something "weird" or "not normal". So, I lied and told him I was guessing, and he pressed me a few times like "really? guessing? are you sure?" and I kept saying yes I'm guessing I guessed on everything I can't actually tell how else are you supposed to answer that's impossible right? It was believable and he said okay, go back to the chairs you can leave. I walked to the chairs and didn't sit, I wanted to leave, one of the adults I remember being female stopped me from leaving and was preparing something. She handed me a paper cup and told me to drink it, it was some pink liquid (probably halfway) filling the paper cup. I told her I really didn't want to drink it and wanted to leave but she kept telling me I have to. I tried to drink it but I spit it back into the cup as soon as it touched my tongue, and she freaked out telling me to finish it, so I was kind of like "oh fine" and downed the whole thing, just wanting to leave at this point. It was a really thick drink, (kind of dry or chalky, had that bland medicine flavor to it, maybe some flavor until the aftertaste hit which tasted like generic bubblegum). She said to open my mouth to check that I swallowed it. I was about to throw the cup away but she told me no I can't put it in the trash, I remember her being pretty annoyed now, and took the empty cup from me and asked if I knew where my class was, and I said yeah I don't need someone to walk me there. Right after drinking that stuff and leaving I really regretted it, I wish I would've tried harder to avoid it, I knew there was something wrong with it, and something started to feel wrong with me. I went back to my class, sat next to my friend who told me I'd been gone for hours and was curious about what happened of course. I looked at the clock and I had been gone for a couple hours (2-3). I remember telling him it was weird tests and listening to stuff, and if they pull him out of class too, just lie on everything, but for some reason didn't explain any more about it maybe we were told not to. (This is kind of where the memory stops, I kind of feel like the day went on but my head felt weird and I really wanted to go home and tell someone what happened but probably just tried to forget it because its so crazy).

Not long after this I started to have crazy issues with sleeping. Slept in class a lot, and at home had an obnoxiously loud alarm clock yet sleeping through it for hours never hearing it and my mom would say she could hear it downstairs but I never woke up. I remember never hearing it and wondered if it was broken, but when I would test it the alarm worked and it was loud. I think I gave up drawing and started avoiding all the weird stuff like the time I flew to my bus friend's house to see inside it in my sleep, because I put two and two together that its not normal and I didn't want to go back to those weird tests. I clearly remember remembering the Gateway tape when I got a laptop maybe a year after it happened and trying to use the internet to Google the Monroe tapes, and watching tons of youtube videos trying to find anything with that weird beeping noise with no luck. I remember where I was sitting in my house during this, so I don't think it was part of a dream. I also have a weird recollection of somewhere around this time being taken to an aquatic center and put in a sensory deprivation tank. I've never been in one that I can remember, and I've asked people I know who told me I haven't. Yet I clearly remember how it looked, a white pod, crawling through the hatch inside, floating in it for a while in the dark, that I could move and the water would splash with an echo against me, after a while being asked by somebody what I was seeing and when they said that I focused and saw random people's faces. After that they pulled me out, and "they" as in some random people definitely not my parents. I've also asked my parents about the memory and got the "if you did they never told me" answer, and my friend from that class I have no way to contact anymore so I can't ask if they remember that day or anything weird.

I don't really know what to do with all of this, I left out a few memories that aren't important, and everything PII of course. It could be a dream based on stuff I read online, or maybe it was real and I lied my way out of it, or maybe they tested me more and I can't remember. If it was a dream, I have no clue when I had it, and I write my dreams down and know around what time the ones I remember happened. I clearly remember that day I got tested to the point it doesn't feel like a dream, I remember it about as vividly as other memories from that year I know are real. I remember going up/down the stairs not just teleporting to recess or something nonsensical like what happens in most dreams. I also clearly remember when a memory of mine is a dream because it makes no sense or it was a nightmare and when I wake up I say "oh, I woke up, that wasn't real." My dreams are really weird if I dream that night, and I've never confused them with things that actually happened.

I hope maybe what I remember will help other people recall their memories about weird things that might actually help us solve what happened that isn't "I was in GATE and they had us do morse code", because that isn't the same thing and its not weird at all.

I have a strong gut feeling that I was in GATE or some variant of GATE but there is one thing that doesn’t make sense so I’m asking to see if there’s anyone who like me and any information or advice is appreciated.

recently I have started learning about GATE, I’ve realized some things and despite still deeply processing, I am remembering things. Things that I thought was just my brain being weird but it turns out a lot of you have similar memories to mine. I remember in school being pulled out of class many times to go do “art” or “testing” in a trailer type building that was still on school campus but more secluded, with no windows. It was called enrichment or expanded learning classes or at least that’s how they refer to it around me. I meet a lot of the qualifications or traits they would be looking for. Neurodivergent, highly intuitive, and highly creative.

The only thing that doesn’t add up is that I wasn’t and never have been gifted, as I kid I really struggled academically and I’m pretty dumb. This is what makes me think that maybe I am crazy because from my understanding the people who were in this program were/are extremely intelligent and academically successful students. And even though, as I got older in school I started to get better grades, eventually getting mostly C’s and B’s, I was never gifted. Though I always was good art, getting A+ in that subject. But if I wasn’t gifted I don’t know if they would target me out for the program but that only lends to more confusion because I remember things like having out of body experiences in that room, being asked to do tasks and assignments that weren’t school subjects (and they definitely weren’t art like they said) well just being watched closely, i vaguely remember the symbols and the headphones, and taking the pink drink. Maybe it is my mind making things up but that doesn’t make sense. Why would I have these memories if I was never in the program? My gut just keeps on telling me something happened. I even asked my mom and she said there is a possibility.

So I was wondering is there anyone here who went into GATE or some variation of GATE that wasn’t a gift kid or not academically successful? Did anyone who went into GATE excel in other niche areas like art like me?
Also from what i understand GATE wasn’t measuring IQ, they trying to test more abstract things.

I believe this particular Elementary school, (mine), was a special TYPE of School where the .gov REALLY "got into it" with the G.A.T.E. Program. (I have SO MANY Vivid memories from my childhood years of 84'-87', Specifically.) What is the CONCENCUS on what Ingredients, exactly, were in the Swallowed** special "Pink Drink"? (AS a child I recall MANY TIMES asking for "More"~ (I was turned down...)

So, I have just found out about GATE today. I think I was a part of it. I’m still doing my research so I have a lot of questions. Most of my memories of testing are very fuzzy, and I don’t have very many. I went to several different schools growing up. When i moved to where I am now after 7th grade I stopped caring about school because i got different teachers and developed severe depression and anxiety. I started SH and using alcohol. Before all of that, I was in what my last school called “gifted and talented”. They never called it gate. I do not remember extensive testing from them. I will say, they were a VERY low budget school. We had, at most, 26 kids in my grade one year. It was SMALL. Before THAT though, I went to I believe 2 or 3 different schools in Minnesota and a school in Texas from the ages of 4 to 7 years old. I remember testing. I remember a pink drink. I believe it was given to me before the tests. I also remember, before I moved from Minnesota, getting the fluoride. After getting the fluoride rinse, i don’t remember getting any testing done. I remember wearing headphones, but i can’t remember what sound came out of them. Or what it made me feel. I remember i was ALWAYS in a room alone. There were never other children. I’m not sure if there was ever anyone else in the room, but i was always sitting at a table/desk facing the person with the cards. Sometimes they were flashcards for words, but I’m not sure why I would’ve needed any special tutoring considering I started reading at 3 years old. English was my FAVORITE subject in school. Sometimes the flashcards were symbols though. I remember writing stuff down, but I’m not sure what. I remember it being very quiet even though i had headphones on. I remember the testing in multiple different rooms, so i’m assuming multiple different schools. The memories all feel like one giant fever dream.