Robert Monroe

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Bob Monroe^[1] (October 30, 1915 – March 17, 1995) was an American radio broadcasting executive who became known for his ideas about altered states of consciousness and for co-working at The Monroe Institute which continues to promote those ideas. His 1971 book Journeys Out of the Body is credited with popularizing the term "out-of-body experience".

Monroe developed Hemi-Sync which he claimed could facilitate enhanced brain performance.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

Bob Monroe was born in 1915 in Indiana and grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, and Columbus, Ohio. His mother, was a non-practicing medical doctor, cellist, and piano player. His father, was a professor of Romance Languages who led summer tours to Europe.^{[citation needed]}

According to his third book Ultimate Journey,^[8] he dropped out of Ohio State University in his sophomore year due to a hospital stay for a facial burn that caused him to fall behind in his studies. During almost a year away from college, he tried to find work. He returned to Ohio State to graduate after having studied, English and journalism.

Monroe developed ulcers, and so was classified 4F (unfit for service) during World War II. He spent the war years working for a manufacturing company that designed a flight-simulator prototype. He wrote for an aviation column in Argosy magazine and was given a job with the National Aeronautic Association (NAA). Bob Monroe's, primary purpose was to interest youth.

In 1953, Monroe formed RAM Enterprises, a corporation that produced network radio programs, as many as 28 programs monthly, principally in dramatic and popular quiz shows.

In 1956, the firm created a Research and Development division to study the effects of various sound patterns on human consciousness, including the sleep state. Monroe was especially attracted to the concept of sleep-learning. This was a natural direction to take, applying to this new area the audio production methods used in the firm's commercial activity. The purpose was to find more constructive uses for such knowledge than was ordinarily available, and the results of this research have become internationally known.

According to his own account, while experimenting with sleep-learning in 1958, Monroe experienced an unusual phenomenon, which he described as sensations of paralysis and vibration accompanied by a bright light that appeared to be shining on him from a shallow angle. Monroe went on to say that this occurred another nine times over the next six weeks, culminating in his first out-of-body experience (OBE). Monroe recorded his account in his 1971 book Journeys Out of the Body and went on to become a prominent researcher in the field of human consciousness.^[2][3][4][5] Monroe later authored two more books on his experiments with OBE, Far Journeys (1985) and Ultimate Journey (1994).

In 1962 RAM enterprises moved to Virginia, and a few years later changed the corporate name to The Monroe Industries. In this location it became active in radio station ownership, cable television, and later in the production and sale of audio cassettes. These cassettes were practical expressions of the discoveries made in the earlier and ongoing corporate research program.

In 1985 the company officially changed its name, once again, to Interstate Industries, Inc. This reflected Monroe's analogy of how the use of Hemi-Sync serves as a ramp from the "local road" to the "interstate" in allowing people to go "full steam ahead" in the exploration of consciousness, avoiding all of the stops and starts.

The research subsidiary was divested and established as an independent non-profit organization, The Monroe Institute, later in 1985. Interstate Industries, Inc. remains a privately held company, now doing business as Monroe Products. The Monroe Products, the company's objective is to continue to expand the Hemi-Sync line of products and their benefits into markets worldwide.

The Monroe Institute (TMI) is a nonprofit education and research organization devoted to the exploration of human consciousness, based in Faber, Virginia, United States.^[9] Upwards of 20,000 people are estimated to have attended TMI's residential Gateway program during its first thirty years.^[10] TMI claims a policy of no dogma or bias with respect to belief system, religion, political or social stance. The institute is housed in several buildings on 300 acres (1.2 km²) of land south of Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.

In 1978, the U.S. military evaluated TMI and arranged to send officers there for OBE/OOBE training.^[11] In 1983, it sent additional officers.^[12][13]

The Institute has an affiliated professional membership, and also publishes scientific papers on a subset of its own studies of altered states of consciousness.^[14]

In 1994, a front-page article in The Wall Street Journal reported confirmation from the former director of the Intelligence and Security Command of the U.S. Army sending personnel to the institute. It also stated the opinion of the head of the Zen Buddhist temple in Vancouver British Columbia that "Gateway students can reach meditation states in a week that took [me] 30 years of sitting".^[15]

A reporter for The Hook, weekly newspaper for Charlottesville, Virginia, who visited The Monroe Institute said, "...with a few exceptions, the only 'normal' people with whom I could fully identify were the trainers, who seemed remarkably well-grounded for people whose day-to-day experiences include astral projection and disembodied spirits".^[16]

The reporter also concluded that "there is something significant being developed at the Institute. Whether it's just a brilliant guided meditation complete with trance-inducing stereoscopic sound, or a doorway to a world of spirit entities, I cannot say".^[16]

In 1975, Monroe registered the first of several patents^[17][18][19] concerning audio techniques designed to stimulate brain functions until the left and right hemispheres became synchronized. Monroe held that this state, dubbed Hemi-Sync that could be used to promote mental well-being or to trigger an altered state of consciousness. Monroe's concept was based on an earlier hypothesis known as binaural beats and has since been expanded upon a commercial basis by the self-help industry.^[20]

Hemi-Sync is short for Hemispheric Synchronization, also known as brainwave synchronization. Monroe indicated that the technique synchronizes the two hemispheres of one's brain, thereby creating a 'frequency-following response' designed to evoke certain effects. Hemi-Sync has been used for many purposes, including relaxation and sleep induction, learning and memory aids, helping those with physical and mental difficulties, and reaching altered states of consciousness through the use of sound.

The technique involves using sound waves to entrain brain waves. Wearing headphones, Monroe claimed that brains respond by producing a third sound (called binaural beats) that encouraged various brainwave activity changes.^[16][21] In 2002, a University of Virginia presentation at the Society for Psychophysiologial Research examined Monroe's claim. The presentation demonstrated that EEG changes did not occur when the standard electromagnetic headphones of Monroe's setup were replaced by air conduction headphones, which were connected to a remote transducer by rubber tubes. This suggests that the basis for the entrainment effects is electromagnetic rather than acoustical.^[22]

Replicated, double-blind, randomized trials on anesthetized patients have found Hemi-Sync effective as a partial replacement for fentanyl during surgery.^[23][24] A similar study found it ineffective at replacing propofol, however.^[25]

• Monroe, Robert (1971). Journeys Out of the Body (1st ed.). Garden City, New York: Doubleday. p. 297. ISBN 978-0385008617. OCLC 207277.
• Monroe, Robert (1985). Far Journeys (1st ed.). Garden City, New York: Doubleday. p. 290. ISBN 978-0385231824. OCLC 11755227.
• Monroe, Robert (1994). Ultimate Journey (1st ed.). Garden City, New York: Doubleday. p. 303. ISBN 978-0385472081. OCLC 28721578.

• Astral projection
• Altered state of consciousness
• Binaural beats
• Brainwave entrainment
• Brainwave synchronization
• Dissociation
• Electroencephalography
• Event-related potential
• Evoked potential
• Human enhancement
• Induced activity
• Institut suisse des sciences noétiques
• Intelligence amplification
• Lucid dreaming
• Mind machine
• Neural oscillations
• Neurofeedback
• Ongoing brain activity
• Out-of-body experience
• Parapsychology
• Satanism
• Satan
• Ghosts
• Zombies

• Hemi-Sync Website and other Monroe Products
• The Monroe Institute
• Monroe biography
• The Monroe Institute Official YouTube Channel
• Focus 10: Mind Awake/Body Asleep
• TMI's Exploration 27 and the Healing/Regeneration Center Chapter 4
• Monroe Institute Research Papers
• Similar and/or related technologies

The Cellar (2022 film) Binaural Beat and Hemi-Sync Brainwave Entrainment The Cellar (2022 film) The Cellar (2022 film) Smile 2 The First Omen (2024) Clown (film) Night of the Living Dead (1990) Silent Hill (film) The Crimson Rivers Diary of the Dead Hotel California The Amityville Horror (2005 film) The Last Chainsaw Massacre (2024) Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016)

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