Monroe - Far Journeys

Also by Robert A. Monroe

J OURNEYS OUT OF THE B ODY

A previous edition of this book was originally published in 1985 by Doubleday It is here reprinted by arrangement with Doubleday.

Far Journeys. Copyright 1985 by Robert A. Monroe. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information, address Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

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First Broadway Books trade paperback edition published 2001

An Eleanor Friede Book

Those interested in the activities of the Institute may write

The Monroe Institute

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Faber, Virginia 22938

The Out-of-Body Experience A Phenomenological Typology Based on Questionnaire Responses, by S. W. Twemlow, G.O. Gabbard, and F.C. Jones. The American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 139 4, pp. 450-55, 1982. Copyright 1982, the American Psychiatric Association. Reprinted by permission.

The OBE Psychophysiology of Robert A Monroe from With the Eyes of the Mind by Glen O. Gabbard and Stuart W. Twemlow. Copyright 1984 Praeger Publishers Reprinted by permission.

The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has cataloged the previous edition as:

Monroe, Robert A.

Far journeys

A Main Street book

1. Monroe, Robert A. 2. Psychical research

Biography 3. Out-of-Body experiences I. Title.

BF1283.M582A29 1985 133.9013 85-1633

ISBN 0-385-23182-2

eBook ISBN: 978-0-8041-5371-3

v3.1

DEDICATED TO :

Nancy Penn Monroe, much more than a wife, whose constant and consistent love, support, sharing, and understanding were the indispensable elements in the writing and completion of this record.

The literally hundreds of others over the past fifteen years who freely gave their time, energy, and interest in so many different ways and without whom very little would have been accomplished.

There seems to be an easy way to doand a hard way. Given the choice, all of us take the easy route simply because its more efficient, saves time and energy. If its too easy, some of us feel guilty. We get the uncomfortable sense that were missing something if we dont go the laborious, tried-and-true pattern. If its that easy, it must not be good, might even be sinful.

But after a while, the easy way becomes the ordinary way and we forget the old road. When youve lived in an area long enough to have traveled between two cities before the interstates and freeways were built, try the old familiar highway just once. Youll find once is enough. The start-and-stop congestion, the total disorder, the growing frustrations far overshadow any remaining nostalgia you may have harbored. You have enough of such local traffic at the beginning and end of each run on the Interstate.

Now the problem. Suppose you met someone who had never driven on an interstate. All his life, he has driven only in local traffic. Hes heard about such superhighways. He might even have seen one from a distance or heard the rumble of vehicles or smelled their exhaust fumes. He rationalizes any number of reasons why he hasnt and wont go interstate; he doesnt need to, hes satisfied the way he is; they travel too fast so its not safe; you have to go out of your way to get on it; its full of strangers from all over the place so you dont know whom youll meet so you cant trust them; your car isnt in very good condition and it might break down and leave you stranded without anybody to help, in some lonely spot you never heard of. Maybe sometime youll try it, but not right now.

Suppose you happened to see a construction order from the state highway department to begin demolition of the old highway so that all local traffic will have to go interstate eventually, like it or not. What do you do? What would you do? Nothing? Suppose the recalcitrant is an old and dear friend. Then what? Your friend knows of the order but refuses to believe it. He can see the work crews beginning to form at the end of the old highway and he ignores their existence. Thus you know the intense trauma he will undergo when the old road is shut off, and he will be carried kicking and screaming onto the Interstate.

You decide to do something, anything you can. After your decision, weeks, monthsyearspass due to your own inertia. You have your own rationale. You dont know how to proceed. You dont know how to describe the interstate in local traffic terms, and your friend understands only local traffic. Someone else will come along and do it for you, for your friend.

Finally, finallyyou discover the stupidly simple answer. You and your friend suffer from the same affliction but from different causes. It is inertia. Back in the old railroad days, a locomotive could pull only four or five cars at a time because if more cars than that were added, it would simply spin its drive wheels trying to get started. Inertia. Then a smart young thinker came along and invented the sliding coupler, which let the locomotive pick up the slackand inertiaone car at a time. Ask any freight conductor what it was like to be in a caboose on the tail end of a 100-car train when he highballs the engineer. Instantaneous zero to thirty miles per hour. Its the same with automobiles. The transmission is there to provide big torque in low gear to overcome inertia. Once under way at cruising speed, power is required only to overcome wind resistance and road frictionand very little of it relatively. The hard case is the catapult launch on an aircraft carrier, which does the job in a hurry and not too gently. Guns are inertia-overcoming devices for bullets.

Its doubtful that explosive or catapult methods to full-speed interstate in a different form will be less than confusing and bewildering, even with modification to local traffic standards. Take this as an illustration:

I cant get the stuff under a null point, there ought to be a better way to do this!

(Your uncontrolled emotion of anger is using much of your energy. A very human response.)

A better way to do it stuff cant help being what it is, you kick a stone in your path and it hurts your toe, why get angry at the stone, you cant be angry at it for being on the path or being harder than a toe yes, now lets see if it works.

(It is focus of attention, of consciousness, which is without diversion or deviation. No other energy available to you as human is as powerful. As a lens will direct energy you call light, so you can use consciousness.)

Each time I hear something like that, I realize how far I have to go.

(You are doing very well, Mister Monroe. Your own recognition of such percept is an indication.)