Robert Monroe : Journeys out of the body

[Nick]

Greetings Clandestino,

Great pick! This may possibly be the first book I ever read on OBE's. It was originally published in 1973 and I think I read it a few years after that. It had quite an impact because it started my whole interest in AP/OBE. I suppose the same has happened to many other people who have read this book. It's an important read also because you read about the early journeys of Robert Monroe (who transitioned to the non-physical realms in March of 1995).

Very best,

[beav31is]

I didnt like his first book much. He didnt know much about OBE compared to his last 2 books.

[clandestino]

Hi there Nick !

I think the first book I ever read on OBE would be Muldoon's, when I was a teenager.

In your opinion, which OBE book would you recommend to someone who is new to the subject ?
cheers
Mark

[Terry B]

The best starter pack that I can suggest would suggest Robert Peterson 1'st book, Alan guiden online book (accidental expert and sequel to travelling) and Donald J. DeGracia astral projection and oobe class text file.

All are simple and easy to understand without too much unnecessary jargon. Being available for free on the net won't hurt either.

[Nick]

Hi Clandestino,

Starter books for me would also include, as Terry mentioned, Robert Peterson's book Out of Body Experiencesas well as his follow-up book Lessons Out of the Body. His website does have the first book online at: http://www.robertpeterson.org/

Also, as a starter, I would recommend the two books by William Buhlman Advantures Beyond the Body and The Secret of the Soul. There is a lot of good information in his books about why ap/obe is transformatory, and beneficial to a person's spiritual growth. His website is at: http://www.williambuhlman.com/

To narrow the field down to one book though, as per your question, is very hard. If someone professed an interest and I knew that person well, I would probably try to recommend a book that I felt would be best for that person in particular. If I did not know the person well, I suppose Bob Peterson's first book is a good starter. That is, from the standpoint of its straightforwardness and simple techniques.

Very best,

[goingslow]

I really liked journey's out of the body, and Ultimate Journey.. but Far Journey's is a little hard for me to get into.   I had to skip the begining since I dont use the CD's so saw no real reason to read that part until if/when I get them.  

So even though he knew more about OBE's in the second and third I really prefer the first and third personally.

[Laurel]

I read Monroe's first book in high school, having had OOBEs all my life but all of the sudden going through a phase of having them "too often" and not knowing exactly what to do about them. I found Journeys Out of the Body very comforting at that time, and it inspired me to try to get more control of when I had projections.

One of the things I like about his books is how they detail his progression from beginner to expert. They show that progress in AP abilities is possible over the course of a lifetime (or even a few years) if you are consistent in your practice and intentions.

This book might also be good for people who are incredulous about AP but want to have a better understanding of the basic experience of it. Monroe writes from an inquiring, open-minded but critical mindset.

Laurel

[Parmenion]

I must admit, I was thoroughly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading JOB (still reading it actually)

Certainly not what I expected it is a very entertaining read, and I'm looking forward to reading his next two books.

Take care,

Dave

[jjnewbin]

You know, Monroe's books are very inspiring. But I have trouble believing a lot of his stories. I get the impression he was really into himself and his made-up vocabulary, and I think he wanted to impress people. And his sexual references (always male oddly) were more than annoying. From that impression comes my idea that he had a runaway imagination. It is just an idea.

His books will definitely inspire you.

[SomeBloke]

I recently read Robert Monroe's 'Journeys out of the Body' - what a great book!
When you consider that these experiences happened predominantly to him in 50's America, and he was a respected businessman from a pretty traditional background, in that sense he was a real pioneer!  He had to overcome a great deal of fears that perhaps do not exist in today's more spiritually open-minded Western culture.  In this book he documents his out of body experiences, and the most notable thing is his almost obsessive desire to try and provide proof that these experiences are real, and not just a remarkable variety of dream.  I think that anyone reading this book will come away feeling inspired and with a genuine sense of warmth for the author.  Perhaps the best tribute I could pay to this book is that the night after reading the first couple of chapters I had my first OBE - thanks Bob! (First in the sense of actually experiencing getting up out of my sleeping physical body.)  I would dearly love to find evidence as he appears to have done that this was a 'real' experience.

So it was with great excitement that I began to read the second in the series - 'Far Journeys'.  This so far has been a real disappointment - even saddening.  It describes how he and a small group of regular members started using technological devices, (largely audio tapes called Hemi-Sync with voiceovers.)  To me this starts to sound a lot like hypnotic induction, and together this group begin to experience during the experiments what I guess you could describe as channeling aliens!  To me it really seemed to document the descent into a kind of group hysteria, to the point where they even invent an unnecessary 'cultish' kind of language to describe their experiences.  Robert's writing style also becomes disjointed and artificial.  To be honest, I don't think I can even bring myself to finish the book.  But I guess I will, and will probably read 'Ultimate Journey' just to see how the guy ended up.

Still, I suspect if he were alive today he would probably appreciate the gesture of me writing how much I enjoyed the first book, but tell me 'boy are you wrong about the second one'.  Who knows.

[The AlphaOmega]

I think just about everyone who has ever heard of OBE has read at least one of his books by now.

[clandestino]

This is the first of Monroe's 3 books. I think he died a few years back. The books were written between mid 70's and late 90's.

He recalls how he first got into OBE : basically he started feeling "vibrations" regularly, and then one day he floated out of his body. He went to doctors and psychiatrists who diagnosed nothing. So he learnt to live with it and learnt how to control the exit process.

There is a brief description of "how to", but if you are after a manual on how to project I would not recommend this or his other 2 books.

However, if you are interested in accounts of his early experiences, and his learnings, then give it a read.

This book tells of "locale 1 & 2", Monroe's early labels for the real-time zone and the astral. Much of this book deals with the real time zone.

All in all, a pretty good read.