Customer Reviews

Ultimate Journey

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In his previous books, Out of the Body Travels written in 1973, and Far Journeys published in 1987 Monroe does not quite attain the level he has reached with this his third and best book.

Now he has behind him more than 30 years of experience in astral travel and practice, which is clearly reflected in this excellent, pager turner narration. This last book of the trilogy is the frosting of the cake in relation to his last two, which were rudimentary works of a pioneer.

Monroe is convinced there will be complete emotional and astral freedom in the 35-century for himself, and the group of souls that comprises his oversoul. Sounds like a long time assuming time has the same meaning in other realities as it does here. (Which does not, since time is an illusion created by clocks calendars, the orbit of Earth around the Sun, rotating on its axis, and mortal mind beliefs).

"you make your own reality" and Monroe proved it while discovering reality is a hologram type of illusion one hundred percent mentally created and imagined. He does not try to mix his discoveries with superstitions of any sort but keeps his wonderful discoveries uncontaminated.

Eventually we all, at our right moment, will evolve to reach a merger with our personal oversoul who as well is in an endless adventure of progression.

Unlike his previous two books, Monroe answers many more questions than he raises. He has come full circle to tell the "truth" about who we are, why we are here and where we can go. More than a guidebook, this book is tantamount to being the Bible for those who believe in the reality of OBE's. Monroe ties all the loose ends together, in as tight a knot as he can, and is finally able to present to us that elusive jewel of insight-the reason for our human existence. It will (hopefully) change, in a fundamental way, how we view reality and our ourselves.

However, to truly appreciate and understand this book, readers should first familiarize themselves with his previous two works. Despite an introductory chapter intended to acquaint unfamiliar readers with his history and experiences with OBE's, Monroe quickly plunges into charting new territory and insights. This is not a how-to book but the author's firsthand experiences traveling out-of-body. Understanding these experiences are difficult enough to grasp by the initiated reader but they may be indecipherable to the unfamiliar. The author's writings are also heavily laden with his own terminologies for describing reality in "the other side." If not familir with his his style and his vocabulary, one could find him or herself a bit perplexed.

Robert Monroe achieved his masterpiece in this volume. The final missing Basic became a Known. At least it did for him, and for those who take the time to contemplate it- or better yet, experience it for themselves. As for those who aren't yet ready for the truth, well, maybe on their next trip around....

Over the years I have been fascinated with Mr. Monroe's books. Here was a thoroughly left-brain type of individual (a successful engineer and business man) with an open mind. He wasn't a "convert" to the perrenial philosophy, no, he just totally reconstructed the core of metaphysical truth FROM SCRATCH. Or rather, he remembered. Mr. Monroe was no student of religion or metaphysics yet he reached a model of existance that is fully compatible with neoplatonism. We originate from a Creator beyond space and time, we descend into the holographic dream of space-time, we gain experience (along with our kindred sparks) through a varying number of lifetimes, our more evolved "higher selves" reach back through time and space to help ourselves at crucial moments, and we finally return back to the Creator bearing our hard-won gifts. He didn't get this from Plato, Plotinus, or the Upanishads- HE FOUND IT OUT FOR HIMSELF THROUGH DIRECT EXPERIENCE.

Oh yes, he even came to an understanding of M-field energy and manipulation techniques ( most call it magic and correspondence theory.) He also realised the truth of the rare few who "can do covertly anything imaginable- and much that we cannot imagine."

Well done, wanderer, well done....

I first became aware of Robert Monroe in the late 70's and found him 'too deep' for my understanding. At the time I was about 18 or 19 years old. With time, and a neverending thirst for knowledge, my capacity for understanding has increased. I guess age does that to a person. After recently picking up a copy of this book, I realized that I enjoyed as never before, what this man had to say. His encounters read almost like a novel, with perhaps the most interesting being his experiences with what he called an INSPEC (Intelligent Species), a type of highly evolved being which serves as guide and mentor. Though he writes with great clarity and wit, he at times uses terminology that some readers might find a bit confusing, or dry (like reading a medical dictionary)! At these times it may be helpful to look past the jargon and see the total picture (story) rather than focussing on particulars (technical lingo). If you can do this you will get far greater enjoyment (at least I did) for your efforts. Know this: This book is well worth the read and in my humble opinion, is destined to become one of the classics in astral projection literature.

Read this book couple of years ago... and what i learned from it still guides me in my daily life, and it has reshaped my view about the Universe, about humans, about LIFE itself.. and most of all, myself.
Monroe writes about his exploration in the OBE astral realm, and there are many spiritual lessons he learned. It is recommended that you read his other 2 books Far Journeys and Journeys Out of the Body as well to get the full picture. Time travelling, Space travelling in the astral world is indeed an amazing adventure. 'Far Journeys' and this book are focused on the spiritual learnings that he accummulated on his astral travels. As he states in Far Journey, the first book "Journeys Out Of the Body" was about the mechanics of the OBE experience, about the methods and his observation of this phenomena. But after a while, he got bored with exploring his immediate physical surrounds (left brain logic), OBE had become a routine. One night, he made the conscious choice to let his unconscious(right brain) take over his options, and he was transported to another phase of his OBE - his exploration out of time-space. Here he learns about his life, makes new spirit friends and learn amazing things from them, travel to the past and future, learn about life as human. An excellent exciting read!

I found the book hard to follow for several reasons. One reason is that I hadn't read either one of the author's two previous books and that might have helped as one of the earlier reviewers suggested. I also thought the style was too choppy and so it was hard to follow. You would be reading about some event and then the next few pages would be some philosophical dialogue which would be hard to follow. I found his terminology very very confusing. The "I-There" term was especially silly and not meaningful at all given how he described what it meant. He also contradicts himself several times and I found that disturbing. I understood he may have had one perception at the beginning of a journey and another at the end but you can't just change what something is supposed to mean without going back and acknowledging your earlier, different, comments. I also have to beg to differ in that I don't think he necessarily answers more questions at all. He left me with lots and lots of questions. Nothing was pinned down and it's just as fuzzy as before about an individual's experience after death of their physical body. I did however appreciate getting some insight into just how difficult it is to really comprehend this subject matter and why it's better that we just not worry about OBE and go about trying to live a full and happy life which is in a nutshell all we are supposed to do anyway. That is according to Robert.

This is my favorite of the Monroe books but it helps to read all three in order. I think that the jargon he uses (often times different from other source of knowledge about OBEs or Astral Travel) would otherwise be difficult to grasp. Also it is interesting to see how his perception becomes more refined over time (nearly 20 years from the first book to this one). I think that there is advanced spiritual knowledge here in disguise as a travelouge (albeit astral travelogue).

This nonfiction book about death and some of the options you have when you die was very interesting to me. People who are hardcore about their religions might not want to read this book because it says there is no God the way we humans think there is. Robert A. Monroe created his own institute to study higher consciousness and to understand what was happening to him when he started floating out of his body. The book has stories of other people from around the world who were taught how to achieve this. Those who are open minded about this subject would probably get a lot from this book and his previous two (Journeys Out of the Body and Far Journeys) because it changed the way I think about life, death, and who I am. There is really no way for people to know for sure until you have your own OBE (out of body experience) or until you die. The book is a little hard to understand at first, but you will start to get it if you read parts of the book over or you read his other two books. This is a good book and I recommend it to anyone who is willing to read it.

I thought this book was an excellent starting point. I have no psychic powers and have been practicing remote viewing principles detailed in this book for a little over six months. I use Neurosync behavior/mind altering interactive software techniques while I work in the theta mode with subliminals selected to improve my psychic and intuitive brain functions. To have an out of body experience, I drink NO caffeine or alcohol and do not smoke; then I use the Neurosync full screen mode for an hour in the high theta range of 8cps and then I also use a light and sound machine in the 8 cycles per second range for an hour to start my OBE session. I have had some startling results with investing, and in my personal life. I was a complete skeptic before using the techniques in this book along with the other equipment. Note: Hemisync Tapes are a waste of time. You just have to buy this book and try it yourself and try these other technical aids that are being researched by the NIMH, NIH, VA and a dozen major Universities. UNBELIEVABLE.

I have now read all three of the late Dr. Monroe's books and in the correct sequence, but I'm still not totally convinced of the reality of his 'journeys'. My readings in Buddhism and other spiritual systems tend to support his experiences, at least to some degree, but much of what I've read in the many NDE (near death experiences) accounts and studies that I've read (cf. Ring, Valarino, et al) don't quite match up. Where is the tunnel of light? etc. Nothing much about Karma either. But reincarnation is neatly confirmed and then some.

In his favor, I don't see any reason why he would invent this material. He was already independently wealthy when he started writing and didn't seem to have any need or want for public attention. More importantly, he set up his Institute which has been functional for several decades now and enjoined the cooperation of many leading scientists etc. and it has produced numerous useful papers and books.

Also his work in hemi-sync research is much respected by other scholars, even utilized by the US Army and elsewhere, and the hemi-sync is the fundamental tool he had used to facilitate others entering into the states of altered consciousness which have led to their own parallel experiences which sort of confirm his.

Above all, he tries to present all this in a calm and fairly objective, almost scientific manner, without the usual touchy-feely trendy 'New Age' kinds of wishful thinking that so often pollute these kinds of subjects.

Still... In his earlier 'Far Journeys' and in this volume, there is a certain amount of flippant or pseudo-humorous, near-comical material, e.g. with respect to 'KT-95' and its denizens and their activities and interests, and the conversations he has with entities from there, as well as the conversations he has with the INSPECs (i.e. himself, as it turns out!). All of that seems to me to be almost silly rather than reflective of any reality he encountered.

He does gradually bring all the material into a kind of all-inclusive theory or presentation of the purpose of life, our origins, etc., and (mostly) what happens to the 'soul' or 'essence' of us when we depart, and it all rounds in as something pleasant, happy, and optimistic - in other words exactly what the average reader wants to hear. And he may have been right about it all, but it could also be just a little too good to be true.

I think that his first book 'Journeys out of the Body' was far and away the most interesting and best-written. As for this one, oh well, even if what he writes isn't really true after all, if nothing else it is at least quite entertaining.