Robert Monroe was a successful and distinguished business executive, dedicated family man, and noted pioneer in the investigation of human consciousness. He also invented Hemi-Sync® and founded The Monroe Institute®, a worldwide organization dedicated to expanding human potential.
Born in Indiana in 1915 to a college professor father and medical doctor mother and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, Robert Monroe was the third of four children.
After a childhood spent in Kentucky and Indiana, he attended Ohio State University. Upon graduating in 1937 with a BA in Engineering, Monroe worked as a writer and director at two Ohio radio stations. Two years later he moved to New York and expanded his broadcasting career, producing and directing weekly radio programs and eventually forming his own radio production company. During the 1950s his company was producing 28 radio shows per month, including the popular Take a Number and Meet Your Match quiz shows. At this time Monroe became well known as a composer of music for radio, television, and motion pictures. He also served as vice president and member of the board of directors for the Mutual Broadcasting System network, was listed in Who's Who in America, and was publicized in magazine and newspaper articles on flying and radio production. Building on this success, Monroe's production company acquired several radio stations in North Carolina and Virginia, and later moved into developing cable television systems.
In 1956 the firm set up a research and development division to study the effects of various sound patterns on human consciousness, including the feasibility of learning during sleep. Never one to ask others to do something he would not, Monroe often used himself as a test subject for this research. In 1958, a significant result emerged—Monroe began experiencing a state of consciousness separate and apart from the physical body. He described the state as an "out of body experience," which has since become a generic term in consciousness literature. These spontaneous experiences altered the course of Monroe's life and the direction of his professional efforts.
While continuing his successful broadcasting activities, Monroe began to experiment and research the expanded forms of human consciousness that he was experiencing. He chronicled his early explorations with a reporter's objectivity and eye for detail in a groundbreaking book, Journeys Out of the Body, which was published in 1971. This public record of his out of body experiences in states beyond space, time, and death has comforted countless people who've encountered paranormal incidents. It also attracted the attention of academic researchers, medical practitioners, engineers, and other professionals.
Ever the pragmatic business leader, Monroe, and a growing group of fellow researchers, began to work on methods of inducing and controlling this and other forms of consciousness in a laboratory setting. This research led to the development of a noninvasive and easy to use audio-guidance technology known as hemispheric synchronization or Hemi-Sync®. In 1974, the original research group was expanded to become The Monroe Institute, an organization dedicated to conducting seminars in the control and exploration of human consciousness. A year later, Monroe was issued the first of three patents for the Hemi-Sync® method of altering brain states through sound.
Throughout the next 20 years Monroe continued to explore, research, and teach others about expanded states of human consciousness and practical methods of enhancing human potential. He developed a series of multi-day workshops that enable participants to personally experience realms beyond physical time-space reality, built a campus for teaching and research, and created a portfolio of audio exercises designed to focus attention, reduce stress, improve meditation, enhance sleep, and manage pain among other applications. In 1985 he wrote a second book, titled Far Journeys, which expanded upon his personal investigations of nonphysical reality. In 1994 he followed suit with a third book, Ultimate Journey, which explores basic truths about the meaning and purpose of life and what lies beyond the limits of our physical world. Monroe died in 1995, at the age of 80. His legacy continues today and has touched the lives of literally millions of people all around the world.
If you attended the Gateway Voyage residential program at The Monroe Institute in the last 10 to 15 years, you missed the evening talks with Bob Monroe. Prior to his death in 1995, Bob talked with Gateway Voyage participants on Saturday evenings, their first night at the Institute, and on Wednesday evenings after they had experienced the exploration of Focus 21, a bridge to other realities. Wednesdays talks were particularly precious to participants as they had experienced for themselves by that time the very realms Bob spoke of during those Wednesday evening discussions.
Here is a collection of nine clips that together constitute one of Bob Monroe's Wednesday night talks in 1990. Bob didn't like to be filmed, so we are fortunate to still have this classic footage.
23 Responses to “Who is Bob Monroe?”
A pioneer for the whole of mankind. A beautiful man, totally honest, open and sincere. A big loss to this physical reality,(planet earth). God bless. Thank you for giving us Bob Monroe for a time.
Thank you Robert for having the courage to explore. At the very least, you have made the world a more interesting place. But I think many would agree, that you have done much more. We all miss you.
I am deeply interested in astral projection please tell me how to do it or what must I do to achieve it ??. Please help
Hi,
Everything dynamic and very positively!
Have a nice day
Hi, http://www.monroeinstitute.org - da best. Keep it going!
Greatings, http://www.monroeinstitute.org to GoogleReader!
Interesting, I`ll quote it on my site later.
Have a nice day
Jinny
Greatings, Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post.
Amazing! Not clear for me, how offen you updating your http://www.monroeinstitute.org.
Hi,
Where are you from? Is it a secret?
Have a nice day
Ugh, I liked! So clear and positively.
Thanks
GlenStef
Thanks for article. Everytime like to read you.
AlexAxe
Hi, Super post, Need to mark it on Digg
Thanks
Hi, Amazing! Not clear for me, how offen you updating your http://www.monroeinstitute.org.
The guideposts Bob left behind are as powerful and helpful now as they were 20 years ago. Thank you for everything, Mr. Monroe.
Alec Satin
Thank you everyone who put this work out there for all of us to find or be led to.
One day I will come to the Institute for my expansion as well.
Respectfully,
deh.
Thank you Robert for showing me how to know I am more than my
physical body. This knowledge has comforted me many times. I'll
be ready when the time comes.
Terry
In Part 3, at 7:23 he is talking about how his goal was to continue in the service of humankind, until one of his nonphysical friends told him something - but then the video cuts out for several seconds. Is there any information on what he said?
My maiden name was Monroe. As a young child I remember my Grandmother saying family origins began in Indiana and Kentucky. I know this is somewhat out of your mission statement, but my family is gone now, and no one left to help. My grandfathers name was Charles Wesly Monroe, he had 7 brothers i have no information about. My father was Charles Jefferson Monroe.
I am not 60 years old, and trying to give the gift of information to my children. Any help would be greatly appreciated..
Thank you for you time and help. Marsha
I enjoyed Robert Monroe's books very much. He is believable where so many are not. Good luck to you all while continuing his work.
Thankyou for sharing those clips. Robert Monroe's book inspire me a lot!
misschien een overbodige vraag, maar Bob is dus Robert?
ik vind het verrwarrend (-;
I saw the video above and what Mr Monroe states aligns perfectly (too perfectly to my own dismay) to Buddhist/Hindu philosophy/religion.
what's the alignment exactly?
1- Souls are trapped in a environment that is NOT the ideal and/or ultimate (environment: body, planet or the world of matter). "you must liberate your mind/spirit" is the constant in Buddhism.
2- You may become aware of the entrapment and start a escape route but Two (2) Variables interconnected between them may AFFECT your 'escape' back into the Real.
3- While in the physical and while going THROUGH LIVES, you create SEEDS of THOUGHT expressing DESIRES. (Mr Monroe say... 'before I go I want to try alcohol... I wanna have kids... more kids... now I just want to do one more thing before I go and so on). He clearly expresses that while in the physical we develop an addiction to life, to the 'world' or to what the world has to offer us in other words. Download/read for free Patanjali's Sutras to confirm EXACTLY the same concept. Mr Monroe doesn't go on explaining the concept of action and reaction (Karma) when the seeds of desire activate through the soul's journey but that's probably out of subject at this point for him. Variables I and II are then Desires and Karma.
The Noble Truth's of the Buddha (2 our of the 4 anyway):
2. Suffering arises from attachment TO DESIRES
3. Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases
4 - "Let one who has found the world, and has become wealthy, renounce the world."
Jesus - Gospel of Thomas
It is then clear that some day we will have to fully renounce to what this world/planet and more importantly the LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS this physical world is located in has to offer in order for us to go back to where we came from.
For a drug or alcohol addict the first step is to recognize they have a problem, for us humans is to accept the possibility that we may be 'trapped' into a level of consciousness (with all physical representations) and we will have to escape someday.