OUT OF BODY

Robert Monroe (1977). Journey's Out of the Body

Monroe earned his BA in 1937 and was a successful small business owner before experimenting with out of body journeys and publishing his first book, Journey's Out of the Body, as part of a trilogy. The second book in the trilogy is Far Journeys (1985) and his final book is Ultimate Journey (1994). His work extended to founding the Monroe Institute designed to "explore human consciousness," which is still in operation as of 2025.

In 1977, there was not a great deal of research available on out of body experiences, so Monroe conducted his own experiments on himself which are detailed in the book. Over 5k out of body experiments are conducted over a 12 year period, portions of which are quoted in the book. Monroe's journalistic observational perspective is refreshing...he provides much detail, examines counter explanations (e.g., at first he thought he was "going crazy" and sought medical and psychiatric evaluations--both confirmed that he was healthy and sane). Based on his data, he concludes that there is a 2nd body apart from the physical one that can move in different locales, partly through conscious thought, and that the traveler can see and experience things in three distinct locales: the real world (our everyday world--he travels to different places and people and later verifies places, events, and conversations he saw and heard), a 2nd locale which appears to have characteristics of heaven and hell, a kind of way station for the afterlife, and a 3rd locale which is similar to our real world but different in significant ways (e.g., technology is not as advanced).

for practical application, there is a detailed section of the book describing how to experience a journey out of the body using the 2nd self that involves conqueoring the fear barrier (especially the fear of death and of not being able to return to the physical body), learning to completely relax, and performing four conditions, the most important of which is the "vibrational state" which facilitates the separation from the body, and finally, there is advice on returning to the body. 

A warning is given that once one opens the door to these experiences, one cannot go back to the way things used to be. For instance, when going to sleep, one may suddenly find oneself "out of body" without wanting to be.  

Note that since 1977, there is a large body of literature on out of body experiences, and more well developed methods for achieving such a state (e.g., Nancy Trivellato's VELO protocol)...related ideas to out of body experiences are astral travel and lucid dreaming (e.g., see Stephen LeBerge for those that want to explore more).