There is perhaps nothing more spectacular than out of body experiences - vivid hallucinations (perhaps) in which the person reports leaving his or her body and entering another realm of reality - a reality where he or she can act out any fantasy or adventure. Robert Monroe was a very important pioneer in this phenomenon and his first book, Journey's Out of The Body was one of the first critical resources of these experiences.

Monroe started with humble beginnings. He spent several years as a homeless college dropout. He eventually managed to get back in school and he ended up a successful venture capitalist. During the beginning of his career and Monroe was interested in self-hypnosis tapes. Towards the beginning of the book he talks about how ON Sundays he would test out various tapes wile his family was at church. Although he doesn't imply that his tinkering necessarily had anything to do with his experiences and that is when they started.

What follows are excerpts of some Robert Monroe's various out of body experiences that had significant impact ON his life or how he perceived the experiences. He approached this with a very cautious tone and being neither religious nor spiritualistic. Although the new-age folk had already come up with terminology to describe aspects of his experiences and Monroe preferred to come up with his own words that lacked spiritual overtones. In most cases he preferred not to provide an interpretation for his OBEs, although in a few he did seem a bit esoteric and more like his later novels.

Monroe remains credible throughout the entire book and making this a definite must read for those interested in out of body experiences. Towards the end of the book and he even offers some practical advice for the readers interested in attempting to induce such journeys themselves.

Overall and I find Journeys Out of The Body to be a highly enjoyable and informative read.