Robert Monroe (books) - Journeys trilogy

I use a grade from 0 - 10 (10 is the best/highest) on the books. These books have been mentioned
several times elsewhere, but I couldn't find a good Book Reviews entry about them, so I now create
a completely new entry. As many people have read these book, the grades I give these books can
serve as a stick to compare my reviews on completely other books (in other threads).


Journeys Out Of The Body, 1971, Robert A Monroe

GRADE: 9.0 - 10.0

Perhaps this book deserves the highest grade, but time has passed and I also feel that some questions
are not answered in a complete way by today's standard, which make me linger on the grade.

This book was groundbreaking when it first arrived. Monroe describes how he made his first OBE and
gives several examples of further OBEs and APs. He gives some structure to the world by introducing
a Locale concept. This concept is still valid (but not much used by TMI) and I'll try to compare it with
the later Focus Levels:

Locale I = What looks like to be an image of Focus 1 or C1. Also similar to R Bruce's RTZ
Locale II = (Focus 15?) Focus 22 up to at least Focus 27.
Locale III = An alternate C1, or rather - the RTZ of a different C1. A different universe with slightly different Laws of Nature.

Robert Monroe never mentioned Locale III in any of his later books, perhaps by a reason? Monroe also
describes some experiences that he can't fit into his 3 Locales. The book contain a few precognitions as
well. Monroe did several experiment to verify that his OBE was real and not just a dream. The books also
gives several examples of the vibrational effect before an OBE.

Various interesting details are given such as encounters with (and assaults by) astral animals. The end of
the book contains one of Monroe's techniques for doing an OBE. It may be necessary to compare it with
other techniques as I get the impression that the technique in the book is incomplete by today's standard.


Far Journeys, 1985, Robert A Monroe

GRADE: 8.5

This book came several years after Monroe's first book. TMI has moved from Afton to Faber and is now
well working with their Hemi-Sync techniques, which have improved and become well developed
compared to the early 1970's. But the book doesn't provide as much info as I would have hoped by all
those years of development. Parts of the Gateway Program are described.

A lot of detail concepts are described, like ROTE, CHEC, clicking-out, Time-Space-Illusion (TSI), M-Band
noise, NVC, etc. The book explains how the Explorer Teams work and give several examples of direct
explorations, but I would have liked a little more conclusions or perhaps explanations to what Monroe
thinks has happened during those explorations. (Some of these early Explorer Team recordings can still
be found on the TMI home page, but they are mostly without conclusions or interpretations from TMI.)

Monroe comes into contact with several (non-human?) intelligences and describes his interaction and
communication with these entities. The huge part of this book is about the idents AA and BB and the
following story line development. I think the long AA/BB interaction part of the book is one of the best.

The book ends with experiences from Focus 34, the beginning of the Gathering, then somewhere around
the year 3500 (?).



Ultimate Journey, 1994, Robert A Monroe

GRADE: 10.0

This is the Monroe book I think is most well written. It reaches more clear conclusions. the book may not
contain that many new concepts, but the content is very important in my mind. Monroe further describes
the Focus Levels and how to help souls in Focus 23.

I think this book provides the best questions and Monroe also tries to answer those questions to his best
ability. It is a book of discovery in a slightly more constructive way than his two previous books, and
that's perhaps why I like it so much that I give it the highest grade.

This is also the book where Monroe finally gives some live experience and development advice to the
reader. What we should do and why we should do it. The book doesn't contain all the answers by far, by
I feel encourage to find the right questions by my own.

Monroe create some important Knowns out of Unknowns in this book. Knowns, which have been further
investigate by Moen, in his Afterlife series.

---

(Later I added:)

I have re-read Monroe's Far Journeys and I now have to re-think. There are parts of the book that
first make sense to me now, after having read the Moen books. It's actually surprising how well
connected and coherent the completely different writings & styles of Moen and Monroe are.

The last part of Far Journeys, with the description of the null point, the rings, HTSI and NPR + the lengthy
diagram are still difficult for me to understand. In some sense it is a mess and I don't really get the
feeling that Monroe had it all figured out as it is very complicated, but he reached much farther than
anyone after him, still today. And, well, Monroe also writes that some parts were unknown or
un-describable to him at the time.

Moen had probably realized the problems with mapping the afterlife during the 1990s, and I get the
impression that he settled with only describing small & medium parts of the astral, piece-by-piece,
to bring some order into matters.

What surprised me most about these books, which were my introduction to OBE, was how they felt after rereading.

On first reading I never realised how absurd and bizarre the first book's experiences were. In hindsight they also seem rather uninteresting, though definitely not when I first read them... The experiences of the second book are still sometimes a bit cryptic, but much clearer, and in the third book finally everything seems rather coherent and clear. The books seem to show very well how Monroe's inner senses developed.

The story thread started in Far Journeys and finished in Ultimate Journey is superb and a good read. I think it's still worth reading and re-reading.

Hallo PauliEffect
All three of Robert Monroe's books get very high marks. Actually I consider the second book, "Far Journeys", to be the most significant of the three. In this second book Monroe explained at length the idea of energy ("Loosh) being supplied by humans, animals and plants to be used by a more advanced discarnate species (The Inspecs). This concept apparently confused and scared Monroe because he never expanded on it again, either in his third book or in any of his many videos.


Regards
Grey

greytraveller, Moen has expanded on it and he calls it PUL. :)

I think Loosh was a metaphor, a riddle.

I think the whole Loosh metaphor is just garbled translation. That's why I think Monroe still had not fully developed his inner senses in book 2.