Astral Projection

Opening the Gateway: Robert Monroe’s Trailblazing Quest

In the early 1970s, Robert A. Monroe—already a successful radio and television executive—found himself confronting an extraordinary phenomenon: vivid excursions “out of the body” during deep states of relaxation. Reluctant at first, he kept meticulous notes of each episode. By 1972 he had founded the Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences, bringing together physicists, psychologists, educators, and explorers to investigate and teach these altered states of consciousness. Today the Institute’s “Gateway” programs—centered on specialized audio guidance (Hemi-Sync®)—continue to train thousands in the art of navigating these inner realms.

Monroe’s first book, Journeys Out of the Body (1971; revised 1977), remains the foundational text for understanding these experiences. In it, he systematizes his adventures into three distinct “Locales”—self‑contained domains of perception beyond the physical. Below, we introduce each Locale in turn, drawing directly from Monroe’s own accounts.

The Familiar Frontier: Hovering Above Your World

Locale I is simply the familiar physical environment you left behind—your bedroom, your neighborhood, even your own sleeping body—perceived from an external vantage point. These visits are the only ones that yield evidential data, because an OOBE traveler can sometimes observe and later confirm details otherwise inaccessible, such as the presence of a technician outside the experiment room.

Yet even here, perception can be skewed: landmarks may look oddly rearranged, distances misjudged, and one’s six‑foot‑tall perspective shifts to a bird’s‑eye view that can be disorienting. Monroe likened the challenge to flying over a city without a compass: you recognize buildings and streets, but from above they appear strangely unfamiliar—making intentional navigation surprisingly difficult

The Astral Atelier: Crafting Reality with Thought

Venture beyond the physical, and you enter Locale II: a vast non‑material expanse where thought is the fabric of reality. Here:

Creation by intent. Mental imagery and emotion sculpt the world—if you will to fly, you do; if fear grips you, hostile landscapes may erupt.
Timelessness. Past, present, and future coexist; clocks and rulers hold no meaning.
No machinery. All transport and communication are instantaneous, born of thought alone.
Like attracts like. Your deepest motivations and emotional patterns magnetically draw you to compatible zones of this realm.

Monroe’s early ventures into Locale II were overwhelming: he encountered emotional weather‑storms and archetypal figures so vivid that they tested the limits of his resolve. Only by mastering “emotional housekeeping”—cultivating calm, clarity, and a robust return‑intent—did he learn to traverse astral neighborhoods with confidence

The Parallel Plane: Stepping into a Steam‑Powered Mirror World

Even farther lies Locale III, an unexpected counterpart to our own material plane. On first impression, it feels like 19th‑century Earth:

Steam‑powered transport. Trains pull wooden‑plank cars; vats of radiant energy replace coal or gasoline.
Familiar geography. Cities, roads, farms, and towns ringed by rolling countryside—but with histories, names, and dates untraceable in any Earth archive.
Subtle divergences. No electricity, no internal combustion; vehicles steer by bars and pumps, moving at a leisurely 15–20 mph.

Locale III’s “materiality” is so convincing that Monroe once believed he’d glimpsed a forgotten corner of our own past—only later to realize it is a complete but parallel domain, governed by its own social customs and technological evolution

Mastering the Gateway’s Three‑Step Curriculum

Monroe’s three‑Locale map provides a clear curriculum for the aspiring traveler:

Anchor in Locale I. Practice return‑techniques and evidential visits close to your body.
Build resilience in Locale II. Develop emotional stability and clear intent to navigate thought‑forged terrains.
Hone observation in Locale III. Cultivate patient curiosity to discern subtle physical divergences.

Through the Monroe Institute’s Gateway Experience—combining guided audio patterns with focused intention—students learn to induce these states reliably, charting their own inner territories. With each step, the promise is not mere escapism, but a profound expansion of consciousness: proof that life transcends the flesh, and that our minds hold the keys to universes yet unexplored.