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1. Introduction to Out-of-Body Experiences
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are unusual states of consciousness in which people report feeling as though their awareness has separated from the physical body. During an OBE, individuals often describe observing themselves from above, traveling to distant locations, or entering nonphysical realms that feel intensely real and vivid. These experiences have been reported throughout history in many cultures and spiritual traditions, but in modern times they have also become an important subject of psychological, medical, and consciousness research. OBEs commonly occur during near-death experiences (NDEs), meditation, sleep paralysis, trauma, or spontaneous altered states, though some people claim they can induce them intentionally.
One of the most influential modern pioneers in OBE research was Robert Monroe (1915-1995), whose personal experiences helped bring widespread public attention to the phenomenon. Beginning in the 1950s, Monroe reported having spontaneous episodes in which he perceived himself leaving his body and exploring nonphysical environments. Rather than dismissing these events as dreams or hallucinations, he carefully documented them and began conducting experiments to better understand altered states of consciousness.
2. About OBE Expert Robert Monroe
Robert Monroe was a distinguished radio broadcasting executive and pioneer in consciousness studies who founded The Monroe Institute (www.monroeinstitute.org), a worldwide organization dedicated to expanding human potential. His classic Journeys Out of the Body introduced the term “out-of-body experience” (OBE) and involves inducing mental states beyond space, time, and even death.
Monroe became famous for discovering how specific sounds have the ability to produce out-of-body states and positive enhancements to consciousness including sleep, relaxation and expanded awareness. Monroe developed the Hemi-Sync Method, an audio technology where specific sounds are able to coax the brain into various beneficial states. In 1958, while Monroe was experimenting with ways to enhance learning while in a sleep state, he experienced sleep paralysis and bodily vibrations followed by seeing a bright light. Then after several weeks of experimenting he induced his first OBE. Monroe is also the author of two more classics: Far Journeys and Ultimate Journey.
3. Robert Monroe’s OBE Method
The following is an excerpt from Dr. Susan Blackmore (www.susanblackmore.uk) in her book, Beyond the Body: An Investigation of Out-of-the-Body Experiences (1992) where she describes Robert Monroe’s method of inducing an OBE. Dr. Blackmore is one of the few NDE researchers who has actually experienced an OBE. Although she is a skeptic of claims suggesting NDEs are evidence supporting the Afterlife Hypothesis, she is a recognized authority in both NDEs and OBEs. In the Nov-Dec 1984 of the Parapsychology Review, Marilyn Schlitz of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, had the following to say about Dr. Blackmore’s book:
“I applaud the phenomenological approach which underlies Blackmore’s approach to the OBE. Perhaps the most important contribution put forth in Blackmore’s book is the psychological model found in Chapter 22 … an important source for anyone with an interest in psi research … an enjoyable experience and is highly recommended reading.”
In the Spring 1984 edition of Anabiosis (now the Journal of Near-Death Studies), Emily W. Cook of the University of Virginia Division of Perceptual Studies, described Dr. Blackmore’s book as:
“A survey of OBE research that is both readable and scholarly.”
Other books by Blackmore include: The Meme Machine (2000), Consciousness: An Introduction (2003), and Conversations on Consciousness: What the Best Minds Think about the Brain, Free Will, and What It Means to Be Human (2007), all of which I highly recommend.
In his book, Journeys Out of the Body, Robert Monroe describes a complicated-sounding technique for inducing OBEs. In part, it is similar to other imagination methods, but it starts with induction of the “vibrational state”. Many spontaneous OBEs start with a feeling of shaking or vibrating, and Monroe deliberately induces this state first. He suggests you do the following. First lie down in a darkened room in any comfortable position, but with your head pointing to magnetic north. Loosen clothing and remove any jewelry or metal objects, but be sure to stay warm. Ensure that you will not be disturbed and are not under any limitation of time. Begin by relaxing and then repeat to yourself five times:
“I will consciously perceive and remember all that I encounter during this relaxation procedure. I will recall in detail when I am completely awake only those matters which will be beneficial to my physical and mental being.”
Then begin breathing through your half-open mouth.
The next step involves entering the state bordering sleep (the hypnagogic state). Monroe does not recommend any particular method of achieving this state. One method you might try is to hold your forearm up, while keeping your upper arm on the bed, or ground. As you start to fall asleep, your arm will fall, and you will awaken again. With practice you can learn to control the hypnagogic state without using your arm. Another method is to concentrate on an object. When other images start to enter your thoughts, you have entered the hypnagogic state. Passively watch these images. This will also help you maintain this state of near-sleep. Monroe calls this Condition A.
After first achieving this state, Monroe recommends to deepen it. Begin to clear your mind and observe your field of vision through your closed eyes. Do nothing more for a while. Simply look through your closed eyelids at the blackness in front of you. After a while, you may notice light patterns. These are simply neural discharges and they have no specific effect. Ignore them. When they cease, one has entered what Monroe calls Condition B. From here, one must enter an even deeper state of relaxation which Monroe calls Condition C — a state of such relaxation that you lose all awareness of the body and sensory stimulation. You are almost in a void in which your only source of stimulation will be your own thoughts.
The ideal state for leaving your body is Condition D. This is Condition C when it is voluntarily induced from a rested and refreshed condition and is not the effect of normal fatigue. To achieve Condition D, Monroe suggests that you practice entering it in the morning or after a short nap. With eyes closed, look into the blackness at a spot about a foot from your forehead, concentrating your consciousness on that point. Move it gradually to three feet away, then six, and then turn it 90 degrees upward, reaching above your head. Monroe orders you to reach for the vibrations at that spot and then mentally pull them into your head. He explains how to recognize them when they occur. “It is as if a surging, hissing, rhythmically pulsating wave of fiery sparks comes roaring into your head. From there it seems to sweep throughout your body, making it rigid and immobile.” This method is easier than it sounds.
Once you have achieved the vibrational state, you have to learn to control it, to smooth out the vibrations by “pulsing” them. At this point, Monroe warns it is impossible to turn back. He suggests reaching out an arm to grasp some object which you know is out of normal reach. Feel the object and then let your hand pass through it, before bringing it back, stopping the vibrations and checking the details and location of the object. This exercise will prepare you for full separation.
To leave the body, Monroe advocates the “lift-out” method. To employ this method, think of getting lighter and of how nice it would be to float upwards. An alternative is the “rotation” technique in which you turn over in bed, twisting first the top of the body, head and shoulders until you turn right over and float upwards. Later you can explore further. With sufficient practice Monroe claims that a wide variety of experiences are yours for the taking.
4. Are OBEs Evidence For Survival?
The following is a reprint by permission of the article “Are OBEs Evidence For Survival?” by Leon Rhodes published in the Journal of Near-Death Studies, 7(1) Fall 1988, Human Sciences Press, Inc. Leon Rhodes was Vice President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, and editor of its newsletter, Revitalized Signs. Reprint requests should be addressed to Mr. Rhodes at Box 23, 2960 King Road, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009.
By Leon Rhodes
Amid the burgeoning “evidence” of consciousness above or beyond the physical body explored in this journal and countless other publications, Susan Blackmore‘s article, “Are Out-of-Body Experiences Evidence For Survival?“, is notable as a well-written and thorough presentation of the evidence that seems to dismiss much of this fascinating subject (Blackmore, 1983).
Distilled, Blackmore said that OBEs and NDEs are unproven, because it cannot be demonstrated that anything leaves the body during such experiences; she added legitimate questions about some reported experiences that could not be factually verified. The real question is: is Blackmore’s article evidence that there is no survival? The human mind has the inborn capability of approaching such questions, but in a rather different way than the scientific method.
Rather than attempt to discredit Blackmore’s argument, let me start by agreeing with her methodical insistence that conclusive evidence has not yet been shown. I can imagine a fairly simple example that would be very close to “hard evidence.” Imagine an accident in which two or more people are injured to the point of near-death, and then both recover in different hospitals, and both report NDEs in which they journeyed through the tunnel and viewed the beautiful light together, commenting to each other or sharing some incident they independently describe.
But rather than seeking some incontrovertible experience that could abolish Blackmore’s arguments, we can constructively analyze what is involved in the OBE and NDE in such a way that her reasoning will no longer hinder our appreciation of these truly remarkable incidents in human consciousness.
Evidence is what we think it to be. We cannot depend on our physical senses, and throughout most of human history we had no dependable measuring devices to prove all sorts of things. First of all, we are satisfied that we live in a world that is solid, walking upon solid earth, sitting on sturdy chairs in durable structures. Yet most people today accept that our senses deceive us, that these physical surroundings are incredibly lacking in substance. Each atom is enormously empty, thrashing around at a tremendous rate, in spite of the appearance that the ground below us is firm. Likewise, our senses do not tell us that we are on a rotating globe whirling around its orbit in a vast galaxy that is hurtling toward some remote destiny beyond our comprehension; but we accept that as true.
We accept that our five familiar senses tell us only a tiny fraction of what constitutes our existence. Our eyes and brain pick up only a narrow portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. We cannot hear the cries of the bat as it maneuvers in darkness; our senses of touch, taste, and smell are not difficult to deceive. True, we have devices that expand our senses into the infrared, ultraviolet, and ultrasonic, as well as microscopes, telescopes, radar, time-lapse photography, etc. These, if we wish to say so, provide evidence that can then be transmitted over great distance by invisible, unsmelt, unheard, and unfelt electromagnetic waves.
We might do well, then, to ask whether in seeking evidence we must not first admit that our consciousness or experience is simply not designed to provide such proof. On far more levels than the singular, “I think, therefore I am,” we may assert that what we experience, is.
At a certain point we must begin to reckon with the sort of evidence that is being sought. Blackmore’s article includes the rather astonishing statement that “if nothing leaves the body in an OBE, then there is nothing to survive, and the OBE cannot be cited as evidence for survival” (p. 142). That is like the assertion, “if I can’t poke my finger through this stone, it must be solid.”
But that is not intended as sufficient response to Blackmore’s contentions. Various aspects of the subject deserve serious consideration, most notably, what is meant by the “thing” part of “nothing.” Must it be visible or have weight? She refers to this “thing” no less than a half dozen times in the article, so it is a legitimate question; and a similar question could be raised about magnetism, gravity, x-rays, etc. These sorts of “things” are not easily measured by our thinking process any more than is that most exalted of all “things,” life itself. Does life leave the body at the time of death? It certainly gives that impression. And this is important because Blackmore’s argument is that if something does not leave the body, the OBE offers no evidence of human survival.
Before getting into more serious analysis, it seems allowable to ask whether the “thing” that Blackmore could not imagine leaving would be visible. There have been numerous references to some “thing” described as a silver strand, like a supernatural extension cord connecting a power source to an airborne vehicle. Does it have weight or temperature? Is it a conductor or an insulator? A host of imponderables arise even before we contemplate the astral body itself.
The astral body concept has been given much attention over the ages, and it is a semantic question when this “thing” is also called a soul. Rather than seeking an observable or measurable “thing” that is in a human body during life, out of the same body when death occurs, and on occasion travelling in and out to bring about an OBE or NDE, should we not look for other forms of evidence?
It is legitimate to note that many modern concepts are based on tenuous evidence. The DNA helix became a useful model without being seen or weighed. The mystifying tracks in atomic cloud chambers are cited as evidence of numerous subatomic properties of matter and energy. The evidence of modern medicine includes symptoms of pain, dizziness, weakness, and nausea, “things” (which, incidentally, come and go in the body) that are more related to consciousness than to physical anatomy.
But evidence takes other forms, too. Perhaps the most impressive evidence of the validity of the NDE is not only its repeatability, in that millions of people of all sorts have strikingly similar NDEs, but that the variety of experiences is so harmonious. Nearly everyone dreams, yet how many people have the same dreams? That simple fact speaks against a broad range of “hallucination” and “imagination” arguments. Thoughtful people, too, would consider it evidence that, unlike dreams, these experiences produce observable changes in the experiencers’ lives. Often these experiences are vividly remembered over periods of many years; yet few of us could remember a dream from last month.
But the evidence goes far beyond that. There is much that is evidential in the vast treasure of ancient tombs, monuments, and temples. From a practical, economic, or physical point of view, it is hard to imagine why ancient people would labor with incomprehensible zeal to construct enormous and magnificent pyramids, ziggurats, and tombs unless they had reason to believe in something beyond physical death. To them, at least, there was certainly evidence.
Less impressive physically, there is astonishing evidence, too, in the surviving stories and legends and beliefs, spoken or written, that proclaim through the ages that there was some sort of evidence that this enormous expenditure of energy was for a purpose. A thoughtful reading of the thanatological literature and of the Bible reveals that visions of a being of light, and a life beyond that of the physical body, are not phenomena that emerged in our lifetime.
If anything, we can say that people tended to keep quiet and not acknowledge their experiences until the surge of evidence that they were not going out of their minds. We can assert, then, that there is an abundance of evidence that people have OBEs and NDEs; but Blackmore’s contention remains that this does not prove survival. She is absolutely correct, but is it for the reasons that she thinks? The lack of evidence, I contend, is for another reason.
As a Swedenborgian, my own special interest in the NDE is not only my acceptance of it as a glimpse into life after death, but also my firm conviction that there is a purpose, an order and reason why such experiences do occur (Rhodes, 1982). Personal religious beliefs do not lend themselves really to brief explanations, but let me simply assert that Our Heavenly Father, the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, is running the show far more than we can comprehend. Such things as NDEs are not aberrations, accidents, or meaningless events. Swedenborgians believe that God is meticulously guiding each of us toward a blessed destiny (“heaven”) except to the extent that we choose to reject that guidance. The OBE, then, is one of the countless ways in which
our God infuses into our minds ideas that can further our development into full human beings.
In other words, experiences enable us to learn something that will contribute to our eternal welfare. I believe that the large number of OBEs of great variety are telling us something, and we should be paying attention. Just about all of our experiences are provided in order that we can get a message, and thereby direct our courses and conduct our lives.
Next, and most importantly, Swedenborgians teach that our God is so concerned with our spiritual freedom that He will not permit anything that will compel us to believe. We cannot be compelled to love what is good and true, to love whatever God we believe in. We are human, and in the image and likeness of God, because of this God-given freedom. Careful thinking then leads us to the essential point that God will not compel us to believe in a life after death. He may hope that we will, and He may give us abundant evidence that there is a purpose to creation, but He simply will not compel our belief.
Ponder this a moment, and it will be fairly obvious that an all-wise God will arrange things so that we remain free to doubt, free to reject the evidence. No matter how vivid and emotionally convincing an NDE, we will remain free to dismiss it as some sort of hallucination. It follows, then, that it is a quality in ourselves that, no matter what the experience, will make it possible for us to reject the sights and emotions and derive no harm or benefit from even such a traumatic moment as dying. Or, we can cherish this new memory and let it play a part in our lives.
It is difficult to avoid the clear and simple implications in Luke 16:31, “And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”
References
Blackmore, S. (1983). Are out-of-body experiences evidence for survival? Anabiosis: The Journal of Near-Death Studies, 3, 137-155.
Rhodes, L. S. (1982). The NDE enlarged by Swedenborg’s vision. Anabiosis: The Journal of Near-Death Studies, 2, 15-35.
5. Conclusion
In the end, OBEs are still one of the most interesting and mysterious parts of human consciousness. Some people see them as psychological events. Others believe they are spiritual experiences, glimpses into another reality, or even possible evidence of life after death. No matter how they are explained, OBEs continue to challenge common ideas about how the mind and body are connected. Throughout history, people from many cultures and religions have described very similar experiences of leaving their bodies, gaining a greater awareness, and sensing realities beyond normal waking life.
Researchers such as Robert Monroe helped bring public attention to the subject by sharing personal experiences and creating methods to explore altered states of consciousness. At the same time, researchers like Susan Blackmore and Leon Rhodes offered important views about both the strengths and weaknesses of seeing OBEs as proof of life after death. The ongoing debate shows how deeply these experiences connect to big questions about consciousness, identity, spirituality, and the true nature of reality.
Even though no single explanation has completely solved the mystery of OBEs, the similarities and powerful effects of these experiences are hard to ignore. Many people who have OBEs say the experience changed them in major ways. They often report less fear of death, stronger spirituality, more compassion for others, and a deeper sense of purpose in life. As scientific research on consciousness continues to grow, OBEs may eventually help scientists better understand parts of the human mind that are still largely unknown.
For now, OBEs remain an open area between science, spirituality, psychology, and human experience. They continue to invite people to explore the subject with both curiosity and critical thinking.
