So, why would anyone want to explore a conscious OBE?

The Monroe Institute was founded on Bob Monroe’s curiosity and personal experiences of the then little known state termed, ‘out-of-body’. Since his earliest experiences starting in 1958, an entire institute for research and education of expanded states of consciousness has been created, the now-famous Monroe Institute. And the focus of the OBE continues, with more and more programs and audio support materials. So, why would anyone want to explore a conscious OBE?

Out-of-body experiences provide information that teach us about ourselves as multidimensional beings.

Out-of-body experiences provide information that teaches us about ourselves as multidimensional beings. The core of these experiences is self-awareness. They take us beyond the limited scope of our five physical senses and open us to the higher dimensional aspects of ourselves.

There are numerous benefits to practicing conscious out of body travel. William Buhlman, noted expert on OB travel and author of 4 enlightening books on the subject notes some of these benefits:

• Personal verification of our immortality
• A decreased fear of death
• Increased psychic abilities
• A more expanded concept of self
• Spontaneous healing

There is a great deal of material written by many seasoned OBE practitioners, old and new. In pouring through the literature, we can find patterns and characteristics common in the reports. It seems that OBE’s can be categorized into some fundamentally different types and there are degrees of differences, but basically there are two types.

First, there is the classical type and it is distinguished by:

• A sense of conscious separation from the physical body. It can seem like you have a fully formed energy body that exists out away from the physical body.
• Vibrational states often precede a classical OBE, but only in about 70% of cases. These vibrational sensations include tingling, shaking, a roaring sound, clapping sounds, puffing out, bliss states, undulations and or rocking motions.
• Perceptions, at first, are similar to physical reality, and include seeing, hearing, or touching a recognizable world. Often this first level of contact is the etheric plane, or what Bob Monroe called Locale 1. Beyond this plane may be the astral levels or again in Bob Monroe’s terms, locale 2. It is the control of our focused awareness that will open the way to experiencing these different levels.

Experiencing the classical OBE gives us extraordinary confirmation that we are indeed more than our physical bodies. We can know that it is not just our imaginations at work.  As Bob Monroe would say, we can “turn beliefs into knowns”.

Then there is the ‘other kind’ of OBE.

Then there is the ‘other kind’ of OBE. This is based on an expanded awareness of self, simply and purely without any awareness of the body. One’s awareness becomes a point of pure consciousness, and one extends their mind consciousness to their experiences.

In this "other kind" of OBE there is:

• Less occurrence of the vibrational state
• No awareness of physical self
• An experience of becoming a pure point of consciousness
• Sensing awareness is first ‘here’ and then simply ‘there’
• Real, life-changing interaction with non-physical experiences and all of the same benefit found in the classic OBE

No matter which approach you decide to take, here are some of the things you can do in the OB state:

• Access information from the larger consciousness system
• Obtain knowledge and have conscious contact with your multi-dimensional self and your higher self
• Interact with non-physical beings in many different dimensional levels
• Come to know that you are more than your physical body
• Experience remote perceptions without limits of time and space
• Explore healing of yourself or others
• Perhaps change events backward and forward in time

Pursuing self-initiated, controlled OBE’s can become a lifetime practice.

Pursuing self-initiated, controlled OBE’s can become a lifetime practice. Leading us to reap all the benefits mentioned at the beginning of this article. What a worthy endeavor for this lifetime and perhaps beyond.

If you'd like to learn more about Out-of-Body Experiences, register for one of the upcoming programs at the Monroe Institute.

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this article visit our programs section or the store.