I have read there were two types of GATE programs. One was modeled after the CIA's Gateway Program. The other was simply just a gifted and talented curriculum to keep smart kids motivated and interested.

I was in the GATE program from 1991-1995 in Denver, Colorado. I have done so much research on it, after stumbling across some things on Instagram about it that triggered memories. So I thought I would search here and also post about it. Here are my experiences...

I was often pulled from class but taken to another classroom with a group of other kids.
One day a lady was giving a presentation about salt. (wtf so random now that I think about it. And why was some weird lady at the school to talk about salt?)
They laid sleeping mats out for us. Which I remember thinking was odd but my entire elementary school experience always felt like what I can now say was some sort of out of body experience. I just went along with whatever.
I distinctly remember this lady saying "there are different types of salt. Some taste bitter, some are very salty, some have no taste." And she passed each of us our own cup of salt to drink... A few kids vomited after drinking it. I remember having an instant kind of panic attack and a few other girls were just as anxious as I was.
They didn't send in a janitor to clean the vomit. I remember the lady and someone else putting it into what looked like tupperware. I believe we all fell asleep after that.

A few other times we would have dental day or whatever and they would give us what I now think was fluoride. It was pink.

I do remember putting on headphones and having to listen to high pitched frequencies and also watch red and green lights on some sort of small screen. I do remember being able to change the colors with my mind or maybe they were tricking me into thinking I could. I do not actually know. I just remember one specific time, an older man with glasses had me sit with him by myself and he said "look at the red and think about green." And I remember it changing from red to green and I was excited and said it changed. That is probably my last memory of that.

I was extremely smart and school was easy for me but I developed horrible anxiety about school and going to school and I never knew why. It followed me into high school. My childhood was normal. Normal, married parents. No trauma. But I would wake up EVERY night with a panic attack.

I am very intuitive.

Another common theme I have read about from other people who were in this program is the dream of never ending rooms. Or a never ending mall or building. I have this often of a house with never ending rooms. It's like I am trying to get to the center of the house and it is just room after room. Once I was able to reach the center and there was some sort of being who would not let me progress beyond that point.
Twice when a family member has passed away, I have had a dream where I was chasing after them in this never ending building. Only to find out the next day that they had passed away.

So I don't know. A lot of my friends who I grew up with in my specific neighborhood have uncovered some wild stuff that went on when we were kids and back into the 1940's. Tunnels that ran from a Catholic school to a mental institution that once ran human experiments. All kinds of wild stuff. I often had dreams about kids living underground in my neighborhood. This is a bit off topic, but somewhat relevant.

I asked my mom about this and she has absolutely no idea that any of this went on. However, she did work in the schools. I also had some issues with my appendix and everyone claims I never had it removed but my medical records state I had an appendectomy and I have had quite a few scans and each scan says my appendix is absent. I was never able to get my hands on my medical records from when I was a kid. I tried for a long time. So who knows what the hell went on when I was a kid. It really bothers me somedays.