Book: Journeys Out of the Body by Robert A. Monroe

First published in 1971, I'm pretty sure that Journeys Out of the Body was the book I read in the late 1970s which encouraged me to try practical experiments in this for myself.

As I said elsewhere, "It took time, patience, practice, and and eventually things started to happen."

If I may take the liberty of quoting from one of the reviewers on Goodreads:

Robert Monroe was a very successful businessman who had no real religious background and no interest in anything mystical or esoteric. When he found himself spontaneously going out of his body, he had no way of understanding what was happening to him and his first assumption was that there was something wrong with his brain.

After being assured by his physician that he was in perfect health and not suffering from a brain tumor, he went to see a psychiatrist, because surely he must be losing his mind. The psychiatrist also gave him a clean bill of health and advised him to look into Eastern religions to see what he might find.

There was very little written about the subject at the time Robert began having these experiences and the phrase "out-of-body experience" didn't even exist yet. Being the logical, scientific person that he was, Robert set out to document what was occurring when it seemed he was exiting his body with the hope of coming to understand as much as he could about this phenomenon.

Over time he wrote three books on his experiences and along the way he invented an audio technology to assist others who wish to have the same experience.

If you have any curiosity about OBEs or astral travel and would like to take a look at the subject matter in a non-new-age way, this is definitely the book to do it with. Robert is clear-headed, logical and reasonable. He makes no claims or assumptions. He does not get flowery and abstract and talk about saving the planet. He's just a regular guy who stumbled into something that few before him had left any information about, so he took it upon himself to research and document and explore. And in the end, he did what he could to help others who were either experiencing the same thing - or wished to.

I think that's how I found it: "Robert is clear-headed, logical and reasonable. He makes no claims or assumptions. He does not get flowery and abstract and talk about saving the planet. He's just a regular guy who stumbled into something that few before him had left any information about, so he took it upon himself to research and document and explore."

The reason I'm sharing this is the hope that someone, some curious reader may take a look and investigate it for themselves. There is no substitute for personal experience, indeed that is what consciousness and the 'Hard Problem' is all about.

Sometimes one may find old books available in pdf format, could be worth checking.

[Laird]

I read one of Robert Monroe's books about two decades ago - I think it was this one. It very much piqued my interest, but I was also wary, and didn't try to induce an OBE myself.

Sometimes one may find old books available in pdf format, could be worth checking.

Here it is for free: https://archive.org/details/journeys_out_body

Speaking of being wary, that was something I considered later. At the beginning, I was just in a peaceful state of meditation - and then falling asleep. That didn't cause me any concerns.

The only time that I did reconsider was when after a while I started to see, but not interact with, other beings during the OOBE. There was nothing untoward, I was left alone, and I didn't have any emotional upset or distress, it was still entirely peaceful. But I started to realise that if I persisted, sooner or later there was the possibility of finding myself in a situation I was not prepared for, a bit like a tourist armed with a camera and a packet of sandwiches wandering off into the middle of some tropical jungle.

Still, after that I had further spontaneous OOBEs, again very peaceful and not involving anything disturbing.

At a distance of some years, my overall feeling is that it is not particularly reckless. But each person must make that assessment for themselves, based upon their own criteria.

To quote Robert Monroe,

Throughout this writing, I have made many references to one evident fact: the only possible way for an individual to appreciate the reality of this Second Body and existence within it is to experience it himself.

Obviously, if this were an easy task, it would now be commonplace. I suspect that only an innate curiosity will enable people to overcome the obstacles in the path of this achievement. Although there are many cases of existence experienced apart from the physical body, they have for the most part—at least in the Western world—been of a spontaneous, onetime nature, occurring during moments of stress or physical disability.

We are speaking of something entirely different, which can be objectively investigated. The experimenter will want to proceed in a manner that will produce consistent results, perhaps not every time, but often enough to validate the evidence to his own satisfaction. I believe that anyone can experience existence in a Second Body if the desire is great enough. Whether or not anyone should is beyond the scope of my judgment.

That last sentence is a similar thought, Monroe will tell you how to do it, but cannot say whether or not you should.

It was Monroe that, together with Michael Hutchison's "Mega Brain" got me interested in binaural beats and  consciousness technology in general.    A subject worthy of its own thread perhaps?  Monroe developed Hemi-Sync - a system that uses Binaural beats to create consciousness change.

Free and downloadable copy

https://www.pdfdrive.com/journeys-out-of...41682.html

Monroe's second book "Far Journeys" continues his explorations.  He has some very interesting experiences and tells his stories in a new way.  The first part of the books starts slowly, but if you stick with it gives a number of new perspectives on the universe.

I reread it every couple of years with enjoyment.

His first book has a closer resemblance to the astral projection world where many experiences seem to be mixed with dreamlike content.  But the second book has more clarity.

I've read his books, and had OBE's through meditation. It's a very good series and my experience aligns with his. My entry point was originally Robert Bruce, though.