The Body of Work by Robert Monroe

[DrTechnical]

I am just finishing Monroe's 2nd book. Most enlightening.

For those of you unfamiliar, he was an early pioneer of OOBE. I can peak at the copyrights, but I want to say he wrote books in roughly:

1970 - Journeys out of body
1985 - Far Journeys
1995 - Ultimate Journeys

So I have two sections of the appendix to read in Far Journeys, then I begin "Ultimate"

The terminology associated with our art is unfortunately jumbled, and perhaps that is why Monroe's work is not more prolific on "Lucid Dreaming" sites. With that said, it ought to be.

I can speak for myself in this regard. After only 4 years of lucid dreaming, I have seriously re-thought and re-defined many of my beliefs and interests. In many ways, I am living numerous contradictions. One set is my interest in the wide open area of LD/OOBE while still being something of an inherent "prove it to me" sort of guy.

But to some extent, my experiences have proven to me that there are mysterious things going on in our little perceived slice of space/time that are much deeper than I ever imagined. Now if you believe that lucids are just stories that play out in your mind while you sleep ... I respect that. But personally, I no longer believe this. Having re-visited scenarios and had them feel so real, having pulled otherwise unkown information from no where, having played around with PSI and dreaming on numerous levels, etc ...   As far as I am concerned, something is going on. Something I am slowly starting to understand. Slowly.

But back to Monroe.

I am open minded and have a sufficient number of personal experiences to take Monroe's work at face value. I would not have done so even 2 years ago. But even now, I often wonder:

- Was he insane?
- Was he reading up on various topics and influencing the nature of his experiences?
- Was he basically a sci fi writer who tried to pass off his creative work as real life experience?
- Was this all real???

Here, I will make only some reference to his experiences. Suffice it to say, he met various "dream guides" or "entities" that explained to him the nature of the planes of existence around the Earth, that discussed with him the cycle of human life, who pulled him into one possible realization of what the Earth might be like in the year 3000 or so and so forth.

Certainly his stories are very detailed. And no one would argue with the overall insights of the philosophical lessons that transpire. Like I said, I will take it all as quite possible.

The main point to this thread?

If you have been engaged in LDIng for some time, and you struggle with the larger question of "what does it all mean"? Monroe's work is a treasure trove of insight and motivation.

Enjoy.

[AspirationRealized]

Unfortunately, those "prove it to me" people are going to be disappointed when it comes to Lucid Dreaming (I know, being one of them).

With something that can't be exactly measured under circumstances that appeal to the greatest skeptic (I consider myself an "open minded skeptic") we are left to trust in the accounts of others. So, notwithstanding some undeniable proof... the greatest we can do with what we have is get many accounts and find the common elements throughout. If an explanation, although not founded on measurable fact, seems accurate to most people's accounts... what more can you ask for?

Thats my little "I haven't an idea what you're talking about, but here's my opinion anyway" perspective.

[miss_maya]

i could see you writing a book one day Dr.T 

[DrTechnical]

@AR  Yes, physical proof, or some manifestation of dream space to WRS (waking reality space) interaction. That is something which has preoccupied a good degree of time and energy on my part of late.

@MM  Who knows? Certainly, if I can nail the aforementioned goal 

[DrTechnical]

I feel motivated to bring this thread to a closure. I'm a few pages away from finishing the last and final book that Monroe authored.

In this last installment, Monroe's research comes full circle. He believes he has found the "Basic" or meaning behind his experiences. He also spends his final years teaching others what he feels he has discovered, developing audio tools to induce specific states of consciousness and so forth.

I will try to boil this down to a usable statement. One that may help you decide if Monroe's work is right for you.

If you believe that lucid dreaming is a point along some type of consciousness continuum. That there is something more here than meets the eye. If you have struggled to build a model around what you think it all means? Then I would highly suggest this series of books.

If you fall more in the zone of "yes, lucid dreaming is facinating, and it provides it's own wonderful intrapersonal insights, but I think that's all it means". Then Monroe's work is probably not a good match to your point of view.

But in short, for me, a wonderful series of books. One which I have learned from, and I feel have challenged me. Well worth the effort.

[Serenity]

I'm going to try to find these in my local Chapters this week. I think this may be what I've been looking for!

[Specialis Sapientia]

I have the trilogy in PDF files on my PC, just email me to get them if any of you want it.

Dr.T, I have a lot to tell you, it's seem like an appropriate time since you have finished RAM's trilogy. The ride is far from over 

I'll PM you soon.

[DrTechnical]

Oh, I realize the ride is far from over.

But I do feel like I have somehow unravelled a large puzzle. One which took me 4 years to solve. (per my PM and thread I pointed you to).

Something tells me the ride will continue for another 30-40 years. And then will continue some more.

[Namaste]

Ooooh... There's definitely sommat going on