A broadcasting executive's journal of a strange experience
Robert Monroe ran a chain of radio stations and had no background in parapsychology when, starting in the late 1950s, he began experiencing what he described as separations from his physical body. Journeys Out of the Body (1971) is his account of investigating the phenomenon on himself — part journal, part attempt to reverse-engineer a repeatable method. He later founded the Monroe Institute and developed Hemi-Sync, a binaural-beat audio technology built on the same hemispheric-synchronization idea behind the CIA's 1983 Gateway Process report, which assessed the Institute's training program.
- Title
- Journeys Out of the Body
- Author
- Robert A. Monroe
- Published
- 1971, Pocket Books
- Secondary source
- D. Scott Rogo, Leaving The Body: A Complete Guide to Astral Projection (1982) — summarizes Monroe's method into the numbered steps below
- Read it
- Open Library catalog page (multiple editions, borrowing/reading options vary)
Monroe's own depth scale: A through D
Monroe labeled successive depths of relaxation as he mapped his own states:
| Condition | State |
|---|---|
| A | Hypnagogic — the near-sleep state where images start appearing. Monroe describes entering it via a forearm-lifting trick: hold the forearm up with the upper arm resting on the bed; as you drift toward sleep the arm falls and wakes you, and repeating this builds the ability to hold the state without the physical trigger. |
| B | Deeper — phosphenes (light patterns from neural activity) become visible behind closed eyelids. The instruction is simply to ignore them. |
| C | A complete loss of body awareness and sensory input — a “void” where the only thing present is one's own thoughts. |
| D | Condition C reached deliberately from a rested, alert state — not by drifting into it from fatigue. This is the state his induction techniques are aimed at, and he recommends practicing in the morning or after a short nap rather than at night. |
The environment Monroe used
- Remove jewelry or anything touching the skin
- Darken the room so no light is visible through closed eyelids — but not pitch black
- Lie along a north–south axis, head toward magnetic north
- Loosen clothing, stay slightly warmer than normally comfortable
- Absolute silence
Before beginning, Monroe gave himself a suggestion, repeated five times: “I will recall in detail when I am completely awake only those matters which will be beneficial to my physical and mental being.”
The 7-step method (as summarized by Rogo)
Note: this numbering comes from D. Scott Rogo's 1982 secondary summary, not from Monroe's own structure — Monroe presents the process narratively throughout the book rather than as a numbered list.
1. Relax the body and mind
- Lie face-up, arms at sides or on hips, eyes closed, relaxed until the body isn't felt
- Go to bed early — the state comes from being rested, not tired
- Use a progressive countdown technique as a baseline; try fractional (partial) relaxation if full relaxation won't come
2. Enter the hypnagogic state
- Drift to the boundary between waking and sleeping, using self-hypnosis to reach the half-awake threshold
3. Deepen the state (Condition D)
- Clear the mind, observe the blackness behind closed eyelids, ignore phosphenes
- Goal: full loss of body awareness with the mind still lucid
- “Mental drift” — the mind wandering — is described as the primary obstacle; the fix is to redirect attention back to the relaxation technique rather than fight it
4. Enter the vibrational state
- Concentrate on a point in the blackness in front of the closed eyes, moving it from 1 to 3 to 6 feet out, then turning it 90° upward above the head
- “Reach” for vibrations at that point and mentally pull them back into the head
- Described sensation: mild tingling → electric buzz → full-body vibration with a deep roaring/buzzing sound
- Monroe's repeated emphasis: fear or excitement at this stage collapses the state
5. Control the vibrations
- Push the vibrations into the head, then down to the toes, then as surges and waves through the whole body — described as necessary practice before attempting separation
6. Partial separation
- With vibrations active, release a single limb of the “second body,” extending a hand or foot until it contacts a familiar object, then pushing it through
- Strict thought control is emphasized — a stray thought is described as collapsing the state
7. Full separation
Lift-out: focus exclusively on becoming progressively lighter and floating upward, with no other thought allowed to interrupt. Monroe recommended beginners start with this one.
Roll-out: mentally roll over as if turning in bed — not a physical movement — twisting from the top to roll out of the physical body. Monroe noted this worked for him even when physically confined by EEG wiring during lab sessions.
Monroe's alternate description, Chapter 16
This isn't a separate technique from Step 4 above — it's the second explanation Monroe gives, in the same Chapter 16 (“Preliminary Exercises”) passage, for reaching the same vibrational point, in case the first description didn't click:
- Picture two lines of force extending from the outer sides of your closed eyes, converging at a point about a foot away from your forehead — like two charged wires joining, or two magnet poles forced together
- Extend that junction outward to about 3 feet (the length of an outstretched arm); the convergence angle widens and the “pressure” between the lines should increase to maintain it
- Extend the intersection point to about 6 feet away
- Bend the point of intersection 90° upward, in the direction of your head but parallel to your body's axis, and “reach” with it
Monroe describes the result, when it works, as “a surging, hissing, rhythmically pulsating wave of fiery sparks” rolling into the head and through the body, making it feel rigid and immobile — the same vibrational state described in Step 4, just reached via this visualization instead.
Supplementary techniques from the journal
Oral breathing
Breathing through a half-open mouth while concentrating on the void or focal point, used during the vibrational-state induction. Monroe notes a dry throat as a side effect.
Jaw tuning
A more specific mechanic than the name suggests: once vibrations are active, Monroe found that small movements of the jaw let him locate a “peak tuning position” that controlled where in the body the vibration concentrated. In his own account, he used it to deliberately relocate vibration intensity — starting in the head, then moving it down into the chest, then into other parts of the body, making it stronger in a given area at will. He ties this to a physical detail from his own history: a lengthy dental process (seven lower teeth capped) in the year before his first spontaneous OBE, speculating the metal in the capping may have interacted with the jaw-tuning effect — a hypothesis he explicitly flags as unconfirmed and untested by anyone with the relevant expertise.
Sex center + oral breathing
Mental focus on the pelvic/sex center combined with oral breathing — by Monroe's own account, his most frequently logged setup. A representative journal entry: “Went into relaxation countdown, used sex center mental pattern with oral breathing to create condition. Used peel-off to get out of body.”
Other separation methods noted in his journal
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Stretch-out | Stretching the second body outward; travel described as unusually fast |
| Peel-off | A sensation of an outer layer of the physical body being removed, with the second body floating free |
| 90° reach-out | Establishing the vibrational point directly above the head and reaching for vibrations there |
| Fractional relaxation + roll-out | Working from partial (not full) relaxation, then using the roll-out method to separate |
Targeting
Monroe found that focusing on a specific person to visit worked better for him than focusing on a place — e.g. a journal entry describing “concentrated mental desire to visit Dr. Puharich.”
The “infallible return signal”
A safety technique Monroe developed specifically to counter the fear of not being able to get back to the physical body — by his account, the single biggest deterrent to leaving it in the first place. The method: if frightened or stuck, don't panic, and think of the physical body while attempting any physical action — move a finger or toe, take a deliberate breath, swallow, move the jaw or tongue. Any one of these reliably and almost instantly pulls consciousness back into the physical, by his description “an automatic direction finder and rocket blast combined.” He's explicit that it worked every time for him, while cautioning that's a personal track record, not a guarantee.
The themes that recur throughout the book
- Fear is the obstacle. Excitement, fear, or doubt is repeatedly described as what terminates the process.
- Thought control is central. A single wandering thought is described as enough to collapse the state.
- Mental drift, not the technique itself, is the real obstacle for most practitioners, by Monroe's own account.
- Hemi-Sync came later as an audio aid meant to make these states easier to reach without relying on the manual techniques alone, eventually formalized into the Monroe Institute's “Focus levels” framework.
On the entities and “intelligent animals” he describes encountering in later chapters, Monroe is notably non-dogmatic — he seriously considers that they could be projections of his own psyche rather than anything external, and doesn't claim to resolve the question.
Monroe's own shorthand and training habits
Monroe kept a personal coding system in his notes for specific technique combinations he'd tried — one logged attempt reads: “I decided to try working a formula for the condition (1-20/LQ). I lay down on the bed, thought of the force field diagram, then started the twenty count.” Elsewhere he refers to his practiced return-to-physical method simply as “K recall.” Neither code is expanded on beyond these mentions — they're personal journal shorthand, not a published naming system.
The “numb” technique
During a lab session, irritated by discomfort from a scalp electrode, Monroe concentrated focused attention on the spot to suppress the sensation: “After some time spent in attempting to ease ear-electrode discomfort, concentrated on ear to ‘numb’ it, with partial success.” A minor but concrete example of directed attention used as a sensory-suppression tool during a session.
“Dive through the wall”
A self-training habit for breaking physical-world assumptions during a session. Monroe describes still reflexively heading for the doorknob out of habit, then catching himself: “Irritated with myself, I then dive through the wall rather than the door to reinforce my awareness of the Second State characteristics.”
The data-learning-during-sleep experiment
Presented early in the book as the actual starting point of his investigation, predating his OBE techniques: Monroe experimented with “data learning during sleep,” isolating himself and listening to a tape recording designed to test whether information could be absorbed and recalled from a relaxed, trance-like state — a direct, if informal, precursor to the Hemi-Sync audio work that came decades later.
How Monroe's later audio method works
Hemi-Sync uses binaural beats — two slightly different tones played one per ear (e.g. 200 Hz left, 210 Hz right), which the brain perceives not as two tones but as a third, phantom “beat” equal to the difference between them (10 Hz in that example). The brain's electrical activity tends to drift toward that beat frequency, an effect called the Frequency Following Response. Unlike a single static binaural track, Hemi-Sync recordings use multi-layered, sequenced frequency progressions — typically starting in beta, moving through alpha into theta or delta, then back — intended to guide the transition between states rather than drop the listener into one abruptly.
Brainwave bands referenced in this framework
| Band | Frequency | Associated state |
|---|---|---|
| Delta | 0.5–4 Hz | Deep dreamless sleep, unconscious processing |
| Theta | 4–8 Hz | Deep meditation, dream state, hypnagogia |
| Alpha | 8–13 Hz | Relaxed awareness, visualization, light meditation |
| Beta | 13–30 Hz | Active thinking, alertness, focus, problem-solving |
| Gamma | 30–100 Hz | Peak focus, unified perception, insight |
The “thalamus gate” idea
Monroe Institute material describes the thalamus — the brain's sensory relay station — as effectively “closing” to external input during Focus 10 (mind awake, body asleep) while the cortex stays active, producing the characteristic mind-awake/body-asleep split. Hemi-Sync's layered frequency approach is framed as working with that gating mechanism rather than against it. This is the Institute's own explanatory model, not an independently confirmed neurological mechanism.
What the binaural-beat research actually shows
The underlying auditory effect — the brain perceiving a phantom “beat” at the difference frequency between two tones — is real and uncontroversial. Whether that beat reliably entrains cortical EEG activity to match it is a separate, more contested question: some studies report measurable shifts in brainwave frequency following binaural-beat exposure, while others find weak, inconsistent, or no effect, and a 2023 systematic review (Ingendoh, Posny & Heine, PLOS ONE 18(5)) of 14 qualifying studies found only 5 supported the entrainment hypothesis, 8 contradicted it, and 1 was mixed — the authors concluded the question “cannot be settled at this point.” Two Monroe Institute-published studies: Dale S. Foster's 1990 study on alpha-frequency binaural-beat stimulation combined with alpha biofeedback (Hemi-Sync Journal, Spring 1990), and F. Holmes Atwater's 1997 paper “Accessing Anomalous States of Consciousness with a Binaural Beat Technology” (Journal of Scientific Exploration, 11(3), 263–274), both reporting theta-range shifts associated with Hemi-Sync listening. More recently, a 2026 randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled crossover trial of real-time EEG-guided binaural beat audio (a related but distinct closed-loop method, not a Hemi-Sync track, and aimed at relaxation/sleep-onset rather than OBE induction) found that of 25 healthy adults, EEG frequency dropped below 8 Hz at a median of about 7.4 minutes and below 4 Hz for 96% by around 9 minutes — a relaxation/sleep-onset result, not evidence for any deeper Focus-level state.
Official Monroe Institute material: monroeinstitute.org · hemi-sync.com
The Monroe Institute's numbered states
“Focus levels” are the Institute's content-neutral numeric labels for specific altered states, each paired with a particular Hemi-Sync binaural combination, developed from the Institute's own experiential and brainwave research — not an independently peer-reviewed classification.
| Focus | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Physical Waking Consciousness | Normal daily waking awareness. |
| 3 | Basic Hemi-Sync | First level where Hemi-Sync begins to have an effect; both hemispheres active and synchronized. |
| 10 | Mind Awake / Body Asleep | Body deeply relaxed and asleep, mind fully awake — the Institute's equivalent of Monroe's Condition D. Often accompanied by colors or light patterns. |
| 11 | The Access Channel | An auto-suggestion state used as a communication channel to program the mind, opened during each Gateway exercise. |
| 12 | Expanded Awareness | Awareness extended beyond the physical body; used for exploring nonphysical realities, decision-making, and creative work. |
| 15 | No Time | Consciousness far removed from physical signals, linear time no longer relevant — sometimes called “The Void.” “Probably less than five percent” of participants fully achieve this during a typical seven-day training, per the CIA's 1983 Gateway Process report. |
| 18 | Unconditional Love | A state of presence and contact with “heart energy.” |
| 21 | The Bridge / Edge of Time-Space | Awareness expanded beyond normal time, space, and matter. Identified by the Institute as the state where OBEs can occur — the direct continuation of the techniques earlier in this page. |
| 22 | Coma Vigil / Addiction | Non-physical territory associated with coma, vigil states, and addiction. |
| 23 | Beyond Death | Associated with the dying process and beyond-death states. |
| 24–26 | Belief System Territories | The Institute's own collective label for three thought-responsive, non-physical regions explored in later programs (Lifeline, Exploration 27): 24 tied to simple/primitive religious or cultural beliefs, 25 to major organized religions, and 26 to smaller, highly individual belief systems grounded in direct personal experience. |
| 27 | The Park / Reception Center | Described as a place of orientation and gathering in the non-physical. |
| 32–49 | Advanced / Ascension / Integration / Wholeness | Progressively deeper, less-defined states; 49 is the highest level the Institute names. |
The Gateway Experience (home-study program)
Separately from the Institute's in-person residential “Gateway Voyage” retreat, the Institute sells a structured home-study audio series called the Gateway Experience, released as eight sequential “Waves,” each introducing new Hemi-Sync exercises:
| Wave | Name | What it introduces |
|---|---|---|
| I | Discovery | Introduces Focus 10 (mind awake, body asleep) |
| II | Threshold | Introduces Focus 12 (expanded awareness) |
| III | Freedom | OBE, remote viewing, and energy-management exercises built on Focus 10/12 |
| IV | Adventure | Further Focus 12 work — personal exploration and intuitive-communication exercises |
| V | Exploring | Introduces Focus 15 (“No Time”) |
| VI | Odyssey | Introduces Focus 21 |
| VII | Voyager | Focus 23, 25, and 27 |
| VIII | Union | Added in 2022; the most recently released wave |
Wave names and Focus-level introductions confirmed against current product listings on monroeinstitute.org; III and IV's exact internal Focus-level content is less precisely documented publicly than I and II, V, VI, and VII.
By the Institute's own account, boundaries between Focus 12 and 21 are experiential rather than sharply defined, and Focus 15 in particular is described as extremely difficult to reach (see the Focus Levels table above).
What this is, and isn't
This is one person's 1971 journal and the techniques he built from it, plus the Monroe Institute's own later framework built on top of it — not a clinical study, not a peer-reviewed classification system, and not a claim validated by this site. Monroe was transparent that he was investigating something he didn't fully understand himself, and treated alternate explanations seriously rather than dismissing them. Whatever you make of the phenomenon he describes, the techniques themselves — progressive relaxation, breath control, sustained visualization, and the hypnagogic state generally — overlap heavily with mainstream meditation and sleep-onset practices that are well studied in their own right. The binaural-beat mechanism underneath Hemi-Sync is real and studied; the specific Focus-level map built on top of it is the Institute's own experiential framework, not an independently verified one.
The audio side of this lineage
Monroe's later Hemi-Sync work is the direct ancestor of the binaural-beat approach used in this site's Resonance Console, and the same hemispheric-synchronization idea is what the CIA's Gateway Process report tried to explain in physics terms. Neither tool here claims to induce an out-of-body state — they generate the audio that this lineage is built on.
Brainwave entrainment audio is used for meditation, focus, and sleep support. It is not a medical treatment, and results vary. If you have a seizure disorder or a serious health condition, check with a doctor before use.