Robert Monroe Quotes

The man who was my host looked at me and smiled, then took me over to the other side of the house overlooking the valley, indicating that he would show me another thing the device could do... A small fire was burning brightly on the hillside some three hundred yards away, with smoke curling up into the sky. He told me to use the narrow beam, and aim at the fire. I did, and immediately the fire went out. The flame shut off as if suddenly extinguished. The smoke held for a moment or so longer, then it too was gone.

According to the literature of the psychic underground, the religious-mystical history of man constantly makes reference to this Second Body. Long before Christianity and the Bible appeared, cultures in Egypt, India, and China, to name a few, held the Second Body idea as standard operating procedure. Historians have found these references again and again, but evidently consigned them to the mythology of the times.
If one reads the Bible from this point of view, the belief is confirmed many times in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Catholic Church are found consistent reports of saints and other religious figures having such experiences, some of them willfully. Even in Protestantism, devout followers have reported the out-of-body experience during some form of religious ecstasy.
In the Orient, the concept of a Second Body has long held a natural and accepted position of reality.

As reported elsewhere, I was certain that these experiences were dreams or hallucinations for a long period in the early stages. They were seriously considered as something more only when evidential data began to accumulate.

In the fall of 1964 an interesting meeting was held one evening in Los Angeles. It was composed of some twenty assorted psychiatrists, psychologists, scientists, et al—and myself. It was a most rewarding evening. The purpose of the meeting was to examine with sincerity and seriousness the experiences and experiments which have been condensed herein. After several hours of interrogation by the group, it was my turn. I asked two simple questions of each of them:
"If you were going through what I have been experiencing, what would you do?"...It was the definite opinion of the majority—more than two thirds—that every effort should be made to continue, such experimentation in the hope of enlightening and expanding man's knowledge of himself. Several half seriously stated that I should run, not walk, to the nearest psychiatrist. (None present offered his services.) The second question: "Would you, personally, take part in experiments that would lead to the creation of such unusual activity in yourself?"

To me, it was a place or condition of pure peace, yet exquisite emotion. It was as if you were floating in warm soft clouds where there is no up or down, where nothing exists as a separate piece of matter. The warmth is not merely around you, it is of you and through you. Your perception is dazzled and overwhelmed by the Perfect Environment. The cloud in which you float is swept by rays of light in shapes and hues that are constantly changing, and each is good as you bathe in them as they pass over you. Ruby-red rays of light, or something beyond what we know as light, because no light ever felt this meaningful. All the colors of the spectrum come and go constantly, never harshly, and each brings a different soothing or restful happiness... You respond and drink into you the eternity of the blues, yellows, greens, and reds, and the complexities of the intermediates. All are familiar to you. This is where you belong. This is Home... The mundane is missing. Choirs of human-sounding voices echo in wordless song. Infinite patterns of strings in all shades of subtle harmony interweave in cyclical yet developing themes, and you resonate with them. There is no source from which the Music comes. It is there, all around you, in you, you are a part of it, and it is you.

Having described the "physical" aspects of the Second Body, it would seem most important to examine how the mind apparently operates in reaction to the Second Body experience.

11/27/62...Went into relaxation countdown... Used peel-off to get out of body, just as if outer layer of physical were being removed, then free and floating in room...Went slowly through west wall, feeling texture of each layer of material... Stiff concentrating on Mr. Bahnson, finally stopped. Was in normal-sized room, bedroom, with three people in it. There was a large bed to the right, and two adults lay on it. A little girl, about five or six, was sitting on the floor beside the bed, to the left of it. The little girl looked directly at me and said excitedly, "1 know what you are!' I turned to her, as gently and warmly as I could so as not to frighten her, and said, "You do? Good! What am I?" She was not at all afraid when she said, "You're an astral projection!" (She may have used another term such as "ghost," but it was definite understanding on her part, one way or another.)...I sensed a need to return to the physical, and turned back to the three people. I asked if they would like to see me "take off" and the little girl was eager, and the two adults appeared relieved. I used stretch technique, shot up through the ceiling, and returned to the physical without problems.

Even after I had determined that there was no physiological cause, and that I was no more insane than most of my fellow men, the fears persisted. It was a defect, illness, or deformity that had to be hidden from "normal" people.

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.

Some of the key reports from the notes, which aroused their interest. 9/10/58 Afternoon. Again, I floated upward, with the intent of visiting Dr. Bradshaw... ill in bed with a cold... I would visit him in the bedroom, which was a room I had not seen in his house and if I could describe it later, could thus document my visit../Momentarily, I saw (in the sky?) a figure of a rounded human form, seemingly dressed in robes and a headpiece on his head (an oriental concept remains), sitting, arms in lap, perhaps cross-legged a la Buddha; then it faded... I had the feeling that the energy was leaving, and I felt I wouldn't make it. With this thought, an amazing thing happened. It felt precisely as if someone had placed a hand under each arm and lifted me... I came upon Dr. and Mrs. Brad-show. They were outside the house... I floated around in front of them, waving, trying to get their attention without result...

The most difficult mental process of all is to consider objectively any concept which, if accepted as fact, will toss into discard a lifetime of training and experience. Yet much has already been accepted as fact on far less direct evidence than that presented here, and is now "accepted."

For the most part, I would set up the conscious out-of-body state, then turn the action over to my total self (soul?). My present consciousness would go along for the ride, as a part of the whole. The results have been: ecstatic, illuminating, confusing, awe-inspiring, humbling, reassuring—experience and exploration far beyond my ability to conceive of, most of it an apparent educational program that I am absorbing bit by bit.

Paradoxically, the scientist today can conceive far more easily of the possibility of the area here labeled Locale III than that of Locale II. Why? Because it fits his latest discoveries in physics, small bits of evidence he has uncovered in his experiments with matter bombardment, accelerators, cyclotrons, etc. The best way to get acquainted with Locale III is to take the significant experiments leading up to it directly from the notes.

In the spring of 1958 I was living a reasonably normal life with a reasonably normal family. Because we appreciated nature and quiet, ours was a country environment. The only unorthodox activity was my experimentation with techniques of data learning during sleep—with myself as the chief subject.

Important aftermath: We phoned Dr. and Mrs, Bradshaw that evening...With Mrs. Bradshaw on the phone, I asked the simple question. She stated that roughly at four twenty-five they were walking out of the house toward the garage... The coincidences involved were too much. It was not important to prove this to anyone else... It proves to me—truly for the first time—that there might well be more to this than normal science and psychology and psychiatry allow—more than an aberration, trauma, or hallucination— and I needed some form of proof more than anyone else... It is a simple incident, but unforgettable.