I wish I remember why this was the next book I chose. I imagine that it was because I was starting to become familiar with Near Death Experiences so the next similar concept was an Out of Body Experience. I remember the author explaining that one day he found that he could step outside of his body, and he documents all of his experiences as if he is a journalist writing moment by moment. It is quite impressive how he writes.
I remember that this book truly challenged me in those early days. I think this book introduced the concept of reincarnation, which really freaked me out. I did not like this idea that we spend an entire lifetime of learning all to come back and forget it all and do it again. Also, I felt like it meant that the life was essentially meaningless. We create these connections with people, and then we go do it with new people? I was afraid of this concept. It made me think that I wouldn’t see my dad again, or that I’d even care to see him again after this life was done. How wrong those thoughts were… I know now that reincarnation is actually beautiful. We stick with soulmates and soul groups for many many lives. We have the opportunity to allow our creativity to come through and experience and create this life. Additionally, we get to spend it with the people we love, because they travel thru time and space to be with us.. but anyway I digress.
Robert Monroe also gave terrifying imagery of demon-esque beings and there was just a lot of scary/creepy moments that caused me to really shiver and want to stop diving into this stuff.
One moment that stood out is when he went to this area where everyone was calm, and the most powerful feeling of love washed over him. He didn’t want to leave. This reminded me of my co-worker’s near death experience that she had, and it filled me with hope.
This was also the first time I was introduced to spirit guides. (Synchronicity alert! How is this the next book on my journey to write about) I was very familiar with Guardian Angels from Catholic school, but spirit guides was a new concept. He had two that he would see when he left his body, and they seemed to be people from a different era of time. A medium explained to him what his guides looked like and they matched the description of the two he would see when he’d leave his body.
Aside from all of that, I remember being intrigued by the experimentation Robert Monroe did to prove to himself that he was not crazy.. which considering this happened in the 1960s and 1970s, I imagine there were plenty of moments he believed he was. It was great that this book scared me at the time, because it meant that I would not continue reading the other two books he wrote. It would be all the more impactful when I decided to pick those two up later on.
