Background
Robert Allen Monroe died March 17th 1995. He started his career as a New York Radio Broadcaster and went on to pioneer ground breaking research into human consciousness. He was the founder of the Monroe Institute and the originator of the concept of Binaural Beats for the purposes of mind entrainment. He was the creator of Hemi Sync ( Hemispherical Synchronization) audio products to expand consciousness. He was also a pilot and had a natural love of and talent for music. It is said that he was able to read music at age four without ever having studied the subject.
The Beginning of The Monroe Research into Human Consciousness
He started his research by trying to develop a system to get people to learn in their sleep but the first problem he had to overcome was how to get people to sleep. In order to develop the Learn in Your Sleep system he had to find a way to put his subjects to sleep without the use of medication.
As he was in the business of sound he decided to use sound to put people to sleep. He found that certain combinations of frequencies affected people in different ways. He found that various combinations of sound frequencies could put people to sleep, keep them on high alert or even make them experience expanded states of consciousness.
This was the beginning of the audio technology that he would later become famous for. 1975 he registered the first of several patents for audio products using binaural beats designed to stimulate brain functions.
The Lead Up – Taxing Up The Runway
Robert Monroe, the President of the company, volunteered to be the chief subject.
Something happened to Robert Monroe during the procedures he volunteered to undergo. While listening to the audio he had developed he began to have out of body experiences and these experiences are well documented in many of his books on the subject. His book , Journeys Out Of Body, published in 1971 is credited with coining the phrase OBE or Out of Body Experience.
Prior to him leaving his body he reports having a recurring dream of taking off like an aeroplane but being unable to find a way through the tangle of wires overhead. He also reported feeling as if his body was shaking though physically he was not shaking. The vibration he experienced was an internal one.
He continued with the sound experimentation and he continued to experience these internal vibrations. Up to this he had been fighting the vibrations when he had them because he felt afraid. So one day, rather than fight them he decided to go with them. He simply relaxed into the vibration and after a few minutes it faded and he realised it was nothing to fear.
Take Off
He kept doing this and each time the vibration would simply fade after a few minutes. Then one night as he lay waiting for the vibration to end so he could go to sleep his mind wandered. As Monroe was a pilot he started thinking about the weather and how perfect the weather conditions were going to be for flying the following day. He felt elated at the prospect and his heart was full of joy and feelings of well being. So as he continued to wait for the vibration to end he felt something bump against his shoulder. It was the ceiling of his bedroom. He thought he saw a fountain coming out of the floor. He didn’t know where he was and thought it was a strange dream that he was having. The fountain he thought he saw turned out to be the chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Looking down he saw his wife lying beside a man. He moved toward the bed to look at who could be in bed with his wife and suddenly he realised the man he was looking at was himself. He then became afraid and the idea that he was dying entered his mind. He started to swim frantically to get back inside his body and in a flash he was back inside his body.
That was Robert Monroe’s very first OBE or Out of Body Experience all the way back in 1958.
Interview with Robert Monroe
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