15

Out-of-Body Extraordinaire

203-226

"Before he had his first out-of-body experience (OBE) in 1958, Robert Allan Monroe was an ordinary businessman ... . Born in 1915,

his father was a college professor and his mother a medical doctor.

{LRR "MRA"}

After graduating from Ohio State University, ... he later formed a number of companies, the first of which was Robert Monroe Productions, which produced radio network shows."

p. 203

"In ... his first book, Journeys Out of the Body (1971), ... Monroe describes the circusmstances of his life when his first OBE occurred. He had been living ... in Virginia ... . ... .

p. 204

... Monroe lay down on the couch to take a short nap and was suddenly struck by what seemed like a beam or ray of warm light. ...

{The usual form of the experience of being abducted by space-aliens into their flying saucer, commenceth with waking in bed and noticing a beam of light being shone onto one's reclining body through the window from a flying saucer hovering in the air outside the window.}

The beam affected his body in such a way that he became paralyzed and began to "vibrate." ...

{Sleep-paralysis is sometimes accompanied by a sensation of rocking or of vibration.}

Over the following six weeks, Monroe experienced the same peculiar condition a total of nine times. It always happened the same way. ... As he doesn't mention the term "sleep paralysis" in any of his books, it's obvious that Monroe was ignorant of the condition ... . ...

When the condition next came on, ... he did not fight his way out of the experience, as he had done so many times before. ... Again, he felt a powerful sensation of vibration, "steady and unvarying in frequency. ..." The sensation was accompanied by a "roaring sound." Five minutes later, the condition faded away ... . From that point on, ... he felt more curious ... .

The "vibrations" persisted, and on one occasion Monroe saw them "develop into a ring of sparks" about two feet in diameter.

The "ring" surrounded his body, and remained visible when Monroe closed his eyes. It appeared to sweep back and forth across his body, from his head to his toes,

{In various North American Indian tribes, there is a caerimonial rite of passing one's body through a hoop (is the purpose of this rite to attract the advent of a praeternatural ring into passing around one body?); and there is a modern Chinese (not in any antient nor mediaeval Taoist text, and therefore likely Manchurian in provenience) occult visualization-technique wherein "the Tube of Light overtakes and envelops the receiving individual" ("ADMM").}

p. 205

completing the cycle every five seconds. "As the ring passed over each section of my body," he wrote, "I could feel the vibrations like a band cutting through that section."

Whenever the ring passed over his head, Monroe felt the vibrations in his brain,

{"And I saw a mighty angel come down from heaven ... : and a rainbow was upon his head" (Apokalupsis of Ioannes 10:1).}

and heard " great roaring sound."

{"And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth" (Apokalupsis of Ioannes 10:3).}

... I [L.P.], too, have seen a ring or band surrounding my body.

{So have I seen one surrounding my body (about heart-level); but mine (witnessed while standing) was rainbow-hued (as in A of I 10:1) instead of white.}

The experience occurred while I was deep in the SP state, with my eyes open.

But, unlike Monroe's ring, mine did not move; it remained stationary.

{Likewise, my remained stationary.}

On this particular occasion, I did not experience any vibrations, nor did I hear any strange roaring [n]or whistling sounds. ...

In Terrillon's and Marques-Bonham's ... paper [2001] ..., the authors ... explore the connection between the SP phenomenon and ... OBEs. In a description given of a typical SP episode, the authors mention how one will often hear, at the beginning of the experience, "a buzzing/ringing/roaring/whistling/hissing/high-pitched screeching sound ... ." ... .

p. 206

... weeks later, the vibrations reappeared. As he lay in bed ..., his thoughts turned to {hang-}gliding -- his hobby at the time. Moments later, he found himself lying against ... the ceiling, and that he was pressed up against it, "bouncing gently with any movement I made." Looking down, he saw a bed with two people lying in it, one of whom was his wife. ... Monroe describes ... : "I looked more closely and ... I was the someone on the bed!" ... .

... Monroe confided in his good friend Dr. Bradshaw ... . Dr. Bradshaw said he was familiar with the phenomenon, having heard about it in college, while studying Hinduism.

"Some of the fellows who practice yoga ... can do it whenever they want to," he told Monroe. ...

{"the fakirs ... in many cases ... frankly admit that they "go out of themselves" in some way ... which they produce by means of trance-states" (ITPh&TI, pp. 322-3; RChCC).}

Some time later, while the vibrations were operating in full force,

and while Monroe was feeling particularly courageous, he willed himself to float up out of the bed -- and it actually worked."

{"The first thing to do, then, to ensure the success of our 'astral projection,' is to dynamize the will -- to hyperdynamize it, in fact, so that it is over-charged" (HPsD, p. 271).}

p. 206

"When he thought of going downward, he floated downward, and when he thought of moving to the side, his astral body moved accordingly.

Only after many "test runs" of floating around in the vicinity of his [material] body and then re-entering it was Monroe able to move around confidently in the OBE state. Learning how to control his astral body required much practice, he discovered ...".

p. 207

"Monroe was able to prove to himself that the experiences, instead of being dreams ..., were entirely real.

{"Oliver Fox (real name Hugh Callaway) also often "projected" ... and at first was not sure if {whether} he was having an OBE or if {whether} he was dreaming." (FUEA, p. 56)}

Monroe presents numerous examples of this ... ."

"While in the OBE state, Monroe found it much easier to "home in" on people than to locate specific places. All he had to do was think of a particular person -- usually someone with whom he had a strong emotional connection -- and, almost instantaneously, he would appear in their {his or her} presence. In one such "experiment," ... to visit a friend of his -- a businesswoman -- ... Monroe decided to pinch her ... . ... she actually reacted ... . Monroe then returned to his physical body. ... A few days later ..., Monroe asked her ...

p. 208

: "Do you remember the pinch?" ... She then ... revealed that she had felt the pinch ... . ... Interestingly, the incident seems to indicate that

the astral body -- or what Monroe prefers to call the "Second Body" --

{"Monroe calls that which projects not the astral body but the "Second Body." (FUEA, p. 57)}

is able, under certain conditions, to affect physical matter."

"Monroe was [while astrally projected] able to talk to R.W. -- or some part of her {or rather, to some praeternatural entity standing in for her} -- without her having any conscious awareness of it.

These "conversations," says Monroe, which appeared to be taking place between two superconscious minds {here, Monroe is regarding himself as a "superconscious mind"} occurred on frequent occasions."

{Said "superconscious mind" (when associated with a mortal other-than-oneself) would be that which is designated in Rosicrucian terminology as the "oversoul" : it would be the particular spirit-guide who customarily is in charge of repraesenting a mortal on occasions of praeternatural communications.}

p. 208

"Examining his own astral body, Monroe discovered that there does indeed exist a "silver cord" linking it to the physical body, as declared by numerous occultists. Apparently, at death, this cord is severed, and you lose all connection with your physical body and consequently the "physical realm." The term "silver cord" is derived from Ecclesiastes 12:6-12:7 ..., which states : "Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or

the golden bowl be broken {N.B. : a bowl is ridden through the sky in mediaeval lore in Yemen -- in a fashion closely similar to modern-day riding within a flying saucer}, or

{This "golden bowl" must be a primordial form assumed by the mental body (manas-maya-kos`a); for, it is witnessed than a golden cord is extruded from the mental body (when it taketh its departure out of the astral body) in order to maintain communication with the (now quiescent, in effect sleeping) astral body.}

the wheel be broken at the cistern. {a theme possibly related to the tale of confinement to a cistern of Yowsep the dream-interpreter}

{otherwise, a reference to some microcosmic variant of the macrocosmic water-wheel for uplifting souls of the dead to the moon, and thence to the sun, in Manikhaian cosmology}

Then ... the spirit shall return ... ."

This "silver cord," according to Monroe, is connected to one's back,

p. 209

directly between the shoulder blades (of the astral body ...), and appears to be composed of hundred[s], possibly thousands, of "tendonlike strands, packed neatly together." This connection -- which

Monroe describes as more of a "cable" than a cord, due to its two-inch thickness --

{Though Monroe's own was so thick, other persons have witnessed theirs to be very much thinner. Perhaps the vast merit which Monroe gained by promoting human understanding of this phainomenon resulted in the thickening of his own silvern cable.

proved to be immensely flexible. ... this flexible quality allows the silver cord to stretch across ... distances.

(Is there, I wonder, such a thing as distance in the astral realm, anyway? It would seem that there isn't, that in the astral realm distance does not exist ... .)"

{Distances are not such impediments to travel, nor to communication, in the pure realms (planes : astral, mental, and causal) as they are in the composite realm (material plane : a composite unification of the pure realms).}

"The Mediums' Book explains that the spirits ... of the living (i.e. OBE travelers), are able to render their "semi-material envelopes" -- i.e. their perispirits -- visible when required. The ethereal peirspirit ..., states The Mediums' Book, but is able to undergo "modifications that

render it perceptible to the sight ... by a sort of condensation ... : it then appears to us under a vaporous form."

[(p. 212) analogous to humidity-in-the-air's being rendred visible as mist due to lowering of the ambient temperature]

The perispirit is said to have properties similar to that of a fluid and is sometimes referred to as a "fluidic envelope.""

"astral body can change shape, and, while in motion, will often take the shape of a sphere or orb. ... "If left to its own devices," says Monroe, "you may become a ball, a teardrop, a small cloud, or just a 'blob.'"

Given this information, perhaps it's not surprising that when people see spirits "going about their business" -- such as I have following SP ... -- they're commonly spherical in form."

p. 212

"In Far Journeys, Monroe explains how he discovered that we possess not one astral body but two. ...

{That, in addition to the astral body, we also have a mental body, had already been known for centuries in Bharata/India.}

During one particularly difficult attempt to re-enter his [material] body, ... It looked as though his physical body had split

p. 213

into two. This "other body," he observed, was positioned adjacent to his physical body ..., and was almost identical in appearance, only

less dense.

{less opaque (i.e., more transpicuous)}

Monroe attempted to merge with it and was successful. He writes : "It seemed ... The condition had a familiarity ... all the way back to the vibration I first encountered and the physical paralysis that went with it. The sensation was near-identical ... ." Once "inside" this "second astral body," discovered Monroe, little effort was needed to move into his physical [material] body. ...

Having learned conclusively .. a "second astral body, Monroe, when returning ..., would always re-enter it first and then slip into his physical [material] body. This eventually became an automatic process.

Monroe discovered that the "second astral body" "hovered" near the physical [material], while the furthest away it could move was about ten to fifteen feet. The astral body, on the other hand, ... was free to move anywhere ... .

{In the various autobiographies written by persons who were born with the ability to do astral projection (and can remembre doing it since earliest childhood), they can (and do) [in sharp contrast against these experiences by Robert Monroe] always travel vast distances within the mental body, for (in their cases) it is by no means tethered closely to the material body; nor (in their cases) is it even temporarily ever anywhere in the vicinity of the material body. [written 1 Sept 2017]}

Monroe says ... that if you slip out of your "second astral body" immediately after separating from your physical body, you can become

"clear undiluted energy," a kind of "energy essence.""

{This "energy essence" must be that which is usually known in occult terminology as the "karan.a-s`arira" ('causal frame' or 'causal skeleton' or 'causal body').}

"The etheric body, according to Constable in The Cosmic Pulse, is composed of orgone energy, which ... has an antagonistic relationship with, E[lectro]M[agnetic] radiation, leading Monroe to speculate that perhaps electric fields attract the second [astral] body."

"The Faraday cage in which Monroe was placed had a charge of 50kv D[irect].C[rurrent]. Having left his [material] body, Monroe says he "seemed to be entangled in a large bag made of flexible wire. The bag gave when I pushed against it, but I couldn't go through it." The electric field seemed to be repelling Monroe's astral body."

p. 214

"Locale I proved difficult to move around in. Moving in Locale I is comparable to swimming in ... water, he says, as it is not the natural environment of the stral body ... . In Locale I, you are unable to see with

p. 215

very much clarity, while most of what you perceive registers in shades of black and white. Monroe discovered that finding your {one's} way around [in] Locale I is something of a challenge. Whenever he attempted to go to a specific place ... he would often get lost."

"Monroe describes Locale II as a "non-material environment with laws of motion and matter only remotely related to [those of] the physical world. ..." This "dimension," says Monroe, "seems to interpenetrate our physical world," and possibley exists on a higher vibratory level. ... Monroe describes Locale II as being made up of various rings or layers, which surround the physical world like the many layers of an onion, each one higher in vibratory frequency to {read "than"} the one preceding it. ...

Locale II forces you to realize ... that most of your actions are dominated by your emotions ... . Not until Monroe had learned to harness his "uncontrollable emotional patterns" was he able to think and act rationally in the OBE state. It could be said that the OBE condition is a person's true condition, in the sense that you are {oneself is} "naked" and unable to conceal your true {one's customary} nature. Your soul remains totally exposed.

According to Monroe in Journeys, Locale II is populated by being of both human {of philosophical temperament} and non-human {viz., actual divinities who assist philosopners} origin, while the majority of those who inhabit the areas "nearest" to the physical world are

"insane or near-insane, emotionally driven beings." ...

{These may be the unpleasant spiritual entities who cause living mortals of degenerate character to have hateful, aggressive emotional attitudes.}

The rest of them, as far as he could determine, are the spirits of the living, who, having fallen asleep,

are drifting around Locale II in a state of unconsciousness, almost like zombies."

{It would seem to be implied here [our interprettion] that while the bodies of living persons (which bodies do sleepwalking while occupied by some spirit-entity) are walking about in the material world, they themselves are (viz., their consciousness is) projected into a subplane of the astral plane, and walking about therein rather absentmindedly. [written 2 Sept 2017]}

"In Far Journeys, Monroe explains ... about the nature of the "hungry ghost realm" -- which ... is an area ... which is "just slightly out of phase with physical matter." ...

As soon as ..., says Monroe, you pass withi the vicinity of this "hungry ghost realm," an area where you are likely to meet ... characters, any of whom have not yet learned to control their sex drive and desperately crave sexual satisfaction.

{The term "hungry ghost" is the usual translation of Skt \preta\, a term cognate with the name \Proitos\ of a hero who "had seduced his niece" (DCM, s.v. "Proetus", p. 393a). Proitos (GM 73.a) "lay with [his brother Akrisios]'s daughter ..., and barely escaped alive."}

In Far Journeys, Monroe describes encountering a huge "sex pile" -- a ... mass of males and females "so focused and intent on seeking sexual satisfaction they were unaware of any other existence ... ."

{Certain persons having the ability to witness the situation regarded tree-spirits, have likewise seen the trees each as a mass of males-and-females together engaging in continuous sexual intercourse. These, however, are yaks.a-s and yaks.in.i-s, who are supposedly distinct from preta-s.}

Considering that this realm lies closest to the physical realm ..., coupled with the fact that SP involves a partial dislocation of the astral body from the physical body ..., perhaps it's little wonder that SP sufferers are usually "visited" by spirits who come across as "emotionally driven beings.""

{It is rather dubious whether plant-spirits regularly interact sexually with humans. It would more likely that the incubi and succubae enountred during sleep-paralysis are the spirit-guides of animals currently in a state of sexual excitation.}

p. 218

"Monroe, using one of his non-physical hands, ... grabbed hold of one of the entity's legs. "The consistency felt ... somewhat rubbery; it seemed to stretch" ... ."

{oktopous-spirit? : mollusk-flesh being more stretchy than verbtebrate-flesh}

p. 219

"Monroe describes, in his Journeys, a couple of encounters he had with "astral sucker fish.""

p. 220

"Monroe and his colleagues discovered that various sound patterns can ...

p. 221

induce altered states -- one of which they labeled Focus 10,

a condition in which the mind and the body is asleep,

{otherwise known as "sleep paralysis"}

and OBEs come naturally.

This technology became known as Hemi-Sync (short for Hemispheric Synchronization) ... . With the use of a pair of headphones, separate sound pulses are sent to each ear, and ... the difference between the two signals ... is called a binaural beat. ...

The technology {or rather, the technology's psychological effect} remains somewhat controversial."

{This method, which is simply an emphatic form of stereophonic music, in not at all likely to produce any praeternatural effect, any more than any other variety of stereophonic music can.}

p. 221

"Beginning in Focus 10 (mind awake, body asleep), the participant is guided into a more expanded state of awareness called Focus 12 ... . In this state, colors, shapes and pictures are likely to appear in your mind."

p. 225

"mediumship took place ... whenever ... Monroe's participants were either in an OBE state, or in an advanced Focus 12 state."

p. 221

"Journeying further, ther participant reaches Focus 15,

a "state of no time,"

{No very evident progression of historic time, in that re-enactments of historic events are constantly being undertaken.}

followed by

p. 222

Focus 21, "the edge of time-space where it's possible to contact other energy systems."

To journey beyond Focus 21 is

to leave one's physical body and enter the astral realm."

{to achieve projection of the astral body}

p. 222

"in 1974, ... a affirmation was developed ..., which each participant was encouraged to say at the beginning of their {his or her} session. Part of it went as follows : "... I deeply desire the help and cooperation, the assistance, the understanding of those {assumedly praeternatural} individuals {i.e., assumedly immaterial entities} whose wisdom, development, and experience are equal to or greater than my own." The introduction of this affirmation {actually, a prayer} had the effect of attracting the attention of a large number of intelligent non-human beings, all of them eager to communicate."

p. 222

"Four or five of these "spiritual guides" formed a close relationship with one of the female participants ... . ... The beings then asked her if she wanted ... one of them -- the spokesman of the group -- ... to use her body as "a transmitting set between

dimensions"

{Here, \dimensions\ meaning 'vibratory planes-of-existence'.}

(that is, talk through using her vocal cords). She agreed. A moment later, ... the entity speaking through her -- ... lecturing ... about ... "other levels of consciousness," concluding his speech with ... "Thank you, dear friends."

p. 223

What the entity imparted ... Monroe found ... quite compelling, He and his colleagues hoped that their non-physical {physically immaterial} friends would provide tham with the answers to some important spiritual questions. And so the channeling continued. ... Monroe and his colleagues recorded hundreds of hours of channeled material, most of it of a philosophic nature."

p. 223

"Monroe notes that whenever one of [the] entities borrowed a [mortal] participant's vocal cords and spoke through them {him or her}, their {the entity's} vocabulary would be limited to that of the [mortal] participant. This, of course, is a well-established fact of medikumship. The Mediums' Book ... goes on ..., stating that ... "he [the mortal spirit-medium] does not influence the spirits themselves : he is only an inexact

p. 224

interpreter."

Significantly, Monroe mentions that these apparently highly evolved entities had "total access" to the memory of the person through whom they communicated -- i.e. the medium. ...

Many of the participants described how, when interacting with these entities, the entities made use of a kind of "soul technology," which enabled them ... "to remove the energy essence of a human from his physical body ... ." One the person's body had been "vacated," the communicating entity would then be able to "enter it," and thus control it ... ."

"On particular "device," which was part of this technology {employed by praeternatural entities in imparting specialized mediumship-capacities to mortals}, seemed to involve the use of ocunter-rotating disks ... . ... The [mortal] participant described being placed on one of the disks, which began to spin around.

"... It is as if I am between two energy disks.""

{Shifting from one disk to the other, reversing direction of rotation of one's bodywith each such shift?}

"During one channeling session, a transcript of which is included in Far Journeys, one entity, talking through [a mortal spirit-medium] ... about different levels of consciousness ... .

Plants, according to the entity, "are on a vibrational rate on the levels one through seven,"

while animals "exist on levels eight through fourteen."

Humans, moreover, being a different "form of consciousness" to {read "from"} plants and animals, occupy ... higher levels on the consciousness scale -- from fifteen to twenty-one ... .

Once a person has reached level twenty-eight, ... said the entity, ...

{The only "person" who could be on level 28 or above, would be an innate/inhaerent divinity of the sort who might occasionally undergo a temporary incarnation as a mortal human (whether in the waking-world or in the dream-world).}

would never incarnate again as a human being."

{Or, more accurately, would seldom incarnate as a mortal (and, indeed, had seldom ever incarnated as a mortal).}

p. 226

"Now, it would appear that the astral body departs from the physical body

p. 226

regularly during REM sleep, perhaps entering Monroe's "Locale II."" {Herein, L.P. is tacitly identifying one's ordinary dream-body with the astral body, an identification which would seem quite likely true.}

{If Monroe's "Locale II" be located somewhere among the dream-worlds, then ordinary dreaming would evidently bear some resemblance to Monroe's "Locale II", without, however, ordinary dreaming's ever being located praecisely thereat.}

"According to ... author Robert Bruce has written ... on the topic of astral projection, ... the ... popular ... Astral Dynamics --

your astral body "projects out" every time you sleep. "Normally," he says, "this hovers just above the physical body, mimicking its sleeping position. In effect, the projected double is out of its [material] body every night.""

{This statement by Robert Bruce must be based on various observations made by him, while he was astrally projected, of astrally projected astral bodies of sleeping persons, hovering over their material bodies. This could evidently be true only while such persons were in a state of dreamless sleep, if (as asserted above by author L.P.) the dream-bodies of dreaming persons are located instead in some transcendental realm similar to Monroe's "Locale II".}