Robert A. Monroe - Journey Out Of The Body

Many people dismiss the idea of out of body experiences (OOBE) as, at best, hallucinations and, at worst, fabrications or a sign of insanity. The only OOBE I’ve ever had was when I took too much ketamine. Testimony like this may be behind a lot of the scepticism people express about this subject. The witnesses are under the influence of drugs or exhibit other external distortions of their perception that harm their credibility. Equally, some accounts of OOBEs are made alongside such extraordinarily bizarre claims it’s hard not to dismiss them as delusions or blatant self-interest.


It’s hard to put Robert Monroe in this category of dubious testimony. He was a successful businessman and ran a radio production company.  He was not a cult leader or a drug addict. Indeed, talking about his OOBEs and publicising them was probably more of a risk to his career than a potential boon to it. He doesn’t make any dogmatic claims about what his OOBEs signify and doesn’t link them to a larger schema of beliefs. He simply reports what he has experienced. Furthermore, he was also involved in scientific research. He conducted research into the effects of sound wave forms on human behaviour and had several patents in the field. As such, he tries to be as empirical as possible in his experimentations with OOBEs and reporting of them. He also explicitly recognises their limitations as data points in the scientific method. He makes no wild claims and he seems to be a demonstrably reasonable and scientific person.

The book explains how he started to have OOBEs and details a representative selection of these experiences taken from his extensive notes. He also makes efforts to corroborate his experiences by attempting to visit people he knows and connect with them both psychologically and physically. He collects and collates a large amount of data and even goes as far as to try to have the experiences under various laboratory conditions. He categorises these experiences into three broad groups. First, moving around the physical world we know detached from his physical body (Locale 1). Second, existing in an entirely psychological realm totally distinct from the physical world, which includes contact with people who are dead in the physical world (Locale 2). Third, is a world ostensibly physical world very similar to our own but with significant differences in technology and societal development (Locale 3). The last realm causes him to posit a universe of parallel worlds. So far, so fantastical! However, the manner in which the book is written and the total absence of self-serving claims about the significance of what he has experienced make his account far more persuasive and interesting than anything I have read on the subject before, which admittedly isn’t much.


It’s possible to argue that some of Monroe’s businesses made it in his interests to promote these ideas. The ‘hemi sync’ machine he invented produces altered states of consciousness; a subject this book really piques the reader’s interest in. It could also be argued that his career as a media producer gave him skills in presenting information persuasively. Against this, The Monroe Institute he founded to further exploration of human consciousness is a non-profit organisation. There again, so are scams like the Donald Trump foundation and the CFA institute! I don’t know enough about the man or his institute to comment meaningfully on this but it would be foolish not to think critically about his motivations.


The book encourages readers to try and have OOBEs themselves using various techniques most easily described as akin to meditation. It doesn’t try to get you to join a cult or give all your worldly possessions to The Monroe Institute! In this way, his aims seem to be benign and motivated by curiosity.