People & places · 12 MIN READ · 8 SOURCE QUOTES
Robert Monroe
Robert Allan Monroe (1915–1995) was an American radio and television producer who became the founder of the Monroe Institute and the best-known figure in modern out-of-body research. Born in October 1915, he graduated from Ohio State University in 1937, worked in Ohio radio, and moved to New York in 1939, where he produced network programs and built his own production company. Later he owned radio stations in North Carolina and Virginia and ran cable television systems in Virginia. He said the early research was paid for by his own private company, kept separate from the businesses that had stockholders.
In 1956 his company started a research program on learning during sleep with sound, and Monroe was its main test subject. In 1958, without seeking it, he began to feel intense vibrations and to find himself outside his physical body. He consulted doctors and parapsychologists, took at least a year to accept that the experiences were real, and then did what an executive and engineer would do: he set up a research program. The results were Journeys Out of the Body (1971), a laboratory at his Whistlefield farm, the Hemi-Sync audio technology, the Explorer sessions, the Monroe Institute and the Gateway program.
Monroe preferred neutral language, repeatable methods and personal testing to belief. People who knew him describe a plainspoken, engineer-minded man who smoked, ate junk food and refused to be treated as a guru. He died on March 17, 1995, at the age of 79.
Radio executive turned out-of-body explorer: Bob Monroe's 1958 experiences led to Hemi-Sync, the Monroe Institute and the Gateway program.
Key points
A broadcasting and cable executive first
Before the experiences began, Monroe was a working media executive. After Ohio State he wrote and directed for Ohio radio stations, then moved to New York in 1939. A biography read on a 1985 radio show credits him with some 400 network radio and television programs, a production company that at its peak turned out 28 network radio shows a week, and a post as vice president of programs at the Mutual Broadcasting System that he held until mid-1956. He then owned and operated radio stations in North Carolina and Virginia and, as president of Jefferson Cable Corporation, oversaw cable systems in Charlottesville and Waynesboro, a post the biography says he held until 1976.
1956 to 1958: sleep research, then the vibrations
In 1956 Monroe's production company set up an R&D program on using sound to help people learn during sleep. Skip Atwater explains the logic: research showed that learning worked in the light early stages of sleep but not the deep ones, so the aim was to hold people at the edge, which Monroe described as the mind awake while the body sleeps. Monroe was the key subject, going through the tests perhaps 150 times. In 1958, by his own account while minding his own business running a company in New York, he began to experience a vibrational state and then to rise out of his body.
Neutral words, no drugs, test it yourself
Monroe avoided the vocabulary of religion and the occult. He used out-of-body experience rather than astral projection, gave states numbers, and said in a 1978 talk that drugs fractionalize and distort consciousness, so the lab never used them. Nancy McMoneagle says his whole approach was to go find out for yourself, and Charles Tart says he never laid down a doctrine and gave people tools for exploring. In a 1983 Gateway talk he told participants that one of the things he was happy to say was “I don’t know.”
Three books, 1971 to 1994
Journeys Out of the Body (Doubleday, 1971) made him known. Tart says a year passed without Monroe's New York agent reporting any interested publisher, so Tart, who had read the manuscript, put it in front of a Doubleday editor he knew, who offered a contract. Monroe considered a pseudonym and decided to publish under his own name. Far Journeys followed in 1985, and a radio host noted in 1987 that readers were arriving in Faber, Virginia, to try the Gateway program. Ultimate Journey (1994) was his last book.
Whistlefield: the farm, the lab and the first tapes
By the early 1970s Monroe had a laboratory at Whistlefield, his farm in rural Virginia. Atwater, who first met him in 1977, remembers one man, a lab at Whistlefield, a few cassette programs and the occasional weekend workshop. Campbell says the lab was an empty shell when Monroe asked for scientists to help; he and engineer Dennis Mennerich fitted it out, worked in isolated booths with Monroe monitoring, and built the first binaural-beat tapes. Monroe embedded the beats in his existing sound work, and the result became Hemi-Sync.
Explorers, monitors and the research lab
The Explorer sessions grew out of the lab. Volunteers lay in isolated booths with headphones while a monitor, often Monroe himself, guided them by microphone and the session was recorded. Nancy McMoneagle says Monroe used Explorers to test his sound formulas, seeing how deeply people could go while staying awake, then sent them out to ask what the nature of reality is. A 1988 article published by arrangement with the Institute says research director Rita Warren and her staff had run more than 800 sessions with over 130 people since she moved to the New Land three years earlier. Explorer tapes use initials, not names.
Plainspoken, funny and no guru
People who knew him describe a straight talker. A speaker after Tart's March 2015 talk at the Institute recalls that course visitors wanted to make Monroe a mystical guru and he would not let them, giving straight answers instead. Campbell remembers a man who did what a guru is not supposed to do, smoking and eating junk food, yet was positive and caring. Mark Certo, who recorded him for seven years, recalls long talks over cigarettes and cheeseburgers. Nancy McMoneagle calls him brilliant but not easy to work for, and says Bob was big on the work being fun. Tart persuaded him to soften his scripts from commanding hypnosis-style phrasing to gentler suggestion.
In their own words
Quotes are checked word for word against the recordings and documents they come from. Bracketed words correct transcription errors; “…” marks an omission.
“Well, what happened, in a very simple form: all the way back in 1958 this started happening with me. And in this, it was a thing that I had to do something about it, because it was sort of a wild talent developing in a very ordinary life. And, not finding any other answers, I had to go [in turn] and set out some type of form of research to see what could be, what this is. And it took me at least a full year to accept the reality of it.”
“Mr. Monroe traveled to Duke University and saw J.B. [Rhine], the famous parapsychologist, and he was unable to help him in any way, but did suggest that he try some of the card experiments that Dr. [Rhine] was doing at the time. Mr. Monroe had other people tell him he should go to India, perhaps spend ten to twenty years in an ashram under the supervision of a yogi who could tell him all about astral travel. This didn't fit in with his business plans at the time, and he continued to search out some explanation.”
“And it created what we now call a frequency-following response in the brain wave activity. This is where it began, but I, as the key subject, went through all these tests, so, perhaps, 150 times. But the interesting part is that in this pattern of learning, or attempting to learn, going to sleep and learning, I, being the key subject, it's generally the consensus now that that was the causative factor that engendered my first out-of-body state, because I went through all of these, and we were using a vibrational pattern in turn to induce sleep, just as we do now.”
“Now, in 1977, when I first met Bob Monroe, the buildings that we're sitting in didn't exist. This was just farmland. And Bob Monroe lived in a place called Whistlefield, which was in [an estate] about 10 miles from here in rural Virginia. And he had a laboratory there in which he was doing further research into this audio technology, but it was not a [widespread] thing as it is now. It was just Bob Monroe in his laboratory, and he had a few programs recorded on cassette tapes, and you could sign up to do a weekend workshop. And every now and then Bob Monroe would show up and give a talk somewhere at some seminar.”
“If I have a purpose, it's to act in a very microscopic way, to drop a small pebble in the large ocean and watch the waves upon human consciousness.”
“I used to come back and visit Bob every once in a while, and sometimes one of the courses would be running and he'd be talking to a bunch of people in the evenings down there. And I found it really fascinating how straight Bob was, okay, because a lot of times the people who would come to the programs, they wanted to make him into a mystical, mystical guru with strange powers and all that, and Bob wouldn't let him do that. Bob would give straight answers.”
“He was a wonderful guy. He was a real individual, like we were saying in the car, you know. He did, he did all the things that a guru is not supposed to do. He smoked, he ate junk food. He was overweight. He did all those things, but he was very positive. He was caring. He was a wonderful man.”
“Bob and I, out of necessity, would talk for hours in the lab recording studio or in his cabin up on the hill, or at perhaps even the Greasy Spoon in town in Nellysford, which was just a short distance from the Institute. We smoked a lot of cigarettes. We ate a lot of cheeseburgers together, and we chatted about all sorts of things. We chatted about things mystical, psychological. We chatted about things like the human potential.”
Important things to consider
Reports, not verified facts
Almost everything about the out-of-body experiences rests on Monroe’s own reports and those of the people he worked with. Tart, who ran a sleep-laboratory test with Monroe, says Monroe could not read the hidden target number because he lacked quite the right control. Read the books and tapes as first-person accounts and exercises, not proof.
His cosmology is his own interpretation
Terms such as I-There, the Inner Self Helper and the places he called Focus 27 belong to Monroe’s own map of what he experienced. Campbell, who worked beside him, calls him a good reporter and points out that any stream of experience has to be interpreted. The Gateway exercises can be used without adopting any of it, and Tart notes that Monroe handed people tools for exploring rather than a doctrine.
Dates differ between sources
Monroe dated his sleep-sound research to 1956 and his first experiences to 1958, but the Institute’s history page ties its research division to 1958. The Institute dates its creation to 1971 on one page and to 1973 in a footer, and a 1985 biography says he founded the Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences in 1973. Campbell’s account of the early lab comes decades after the fact. Treat early-1970s dates as approximate.
Explorer initials are not names
Explorer sessions are filed under initials, and online commentators sometimes attach names to them. Unless a participant has identified himself or herself, treat an initialed session as anonymous. This page does not match any coded session to a person.
Practices, not treatment
Monroe never offered his methods as medical treatment. The Institute advises anyone with a history of seizures, auditory disorders or adverse mental-health conditions to consult a physician before using its audio. Accounts of healing, of meeting the dead or of other nonphysical contacts are personal reports.
Common questions
Who was Robert Monroe?
Robert Allan Monroe (October 30, 1915, to March 17, 1995) was an American radio and television producer and executive who founded the Monroe Institute. He graduated from Ohio State in 1937, worked in Ohio radio, and from 1939 produced network programs in New York. In 1956 his company began research on learning during sleep with sound, and in 1958 he began having spontaneous vibrations and out-of-body experiences. He described them in Journeys Out of the Body (1971), Far Journeys (1985) and Ultimate Journey (1994). With engineers, scientists and volunteers he developed the Hemi-Sync audio technology and the Gateway program, taught at the Institute he founded in Virginia. He died at 79.
How did Robert Monroe's out-of-body experiences begin?
By his own account they began in 1958, without warning, while he was running a company in New York. Two years earlier his company had started a research program on learning during sleep with sound, and Monroe, the key subject, went through the tests perhaps 150 times. He then felt strong vibrations and soon found himself rising out of his body; he remembers bouncing against the ceiling. He went to doctors, to J. B. Rhine at Duke and to others for explanations, and it took him at least a year to accept the experiences were real before he set up research.
Which Robert Monroe book should I read first?
Most readers start with Journeys Out of the Body (1971), his first-person account of the vibrations, the second body and his early experiments, and then read in publication order. Far Journeys (1985) continues into the laboratory and Institute years and his larger cosmology. Ultimate Journey (1994), his last book, takes up death and survival. For the life around the books, Bayard Stockton’s biography Catapult (1989) and Ronald Russell’s The Journey of Robert Monroe (2007) fill in the story, and the archived Gateway Voyage talks and radio interviews let you hear Monroe himself.
What was Robert Monroe like as a person?
People who knew him describe a plainspoken engineer, not a guru. A speaker after Charles Tart's 2015 talk at the Institute recalls that visitors tried to make him a mystical teacher and he refused, giving straight answers. Tom Campbell, who spent 15 to 20 hours a week with him for years, says he smoked, ate junk food and was overweight, yet was positive and caring, and courageous to publish under his own name. Mark Certo, his recording engineer, remembers cigarettes, cheeseburgers and long talks about everything from psychology to channeling. Nancy McMoneagle, his stepdaughter, calls him brilliant but not easy to work for.
Did Robert Monroe invent Hemi-Sync?
He led the work, and the Institute's biography credits him with creating its binaural-beat audio technology and developing its multi-day workshops, but Hemi-Sync came from a team. His company's sleep research from 1956 used sound patterns that produced what he called a frequency-following response. In the early 1970s Tom Campbell and Dennis Mennerich built the first binaural-beat tapes for his lab, and Campbell says Monroe then embedded the beats in the sound he already had, which became Hemi-Sync. Monroe himself stressed that the Institute is not one man but hundreds of people from many disciplines, from engineers and physicists to psychologists and physicians.
When did Robert Monroe die, and what did he leave behind?
Monroe died on March 17, 1995, at 79. His daughter Laurie Monroe took over the Institute and dedicated that July's Professional Seminar to his memory; Nancy McMoneagle says she ran it until about 2006. He left three books, the Hemi-Sync audio library, the Gateway Voyage and later programs, and the Focus-level vocabulary trainers still use. He described his own aim as dropping a small pebble in the large ocean and watching the waves upon human consciousness.
In Monroe’s books
Summarized in our own words; the books are not reproduced on this site.
Journeys Out of the Body. Monroe's account of the vibrations, his early deliberate exits from the body, and his first map of the regions he visited, which he called Locales.
Far Journeys. The sequel follows his later explorations, the laboratory and Explorer research, and his idea of a larger identity he called the I-There.
Ultimate Journey. His last book takes up death and survival and what he came to believe about life beyond the physical world.
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Connected ideas
Books & records
Journeys Out of the Body (1971)
Monroe's 1971 record of his first twelve years out of the body: the vibrations, the second body, and Locales I, II and III.
Read the summary →13 min · 8 quotes · 7 answersPeople & places
Whistlefield, Roberts Mountain and the New Land
Monroe's work moved from a farm lab at Whistlefield to the New Land below Roberts Mountain, now the Institute's campus in Faber, Virginia.
Read the summary →11 min · 8 quotes · 6 answersPeople & places
The Monroe Institute
A Virginia nonprofit founded by Bob Monroe in the early 1970s: home of the Gateway Voyage, the Hemi-Sync lab and the Explorer sessions.
Read the summary →12 min · 8 quotes · 7 answersBig ideas
Out-of-body experiences
Monroe's out-of-body experiences began in 1958 with the vibrations and led to the Monroe Institute; Gateway uses that territory without requiring it.
Read the summary →13 min · 8 quotes · 6 answersBig ideas
Explorer sessions
Trained volunteers described altered states aloud in a shielded booth while a monitor, often Monroe, asked questions. The recordings became the Explorer Series.
Read the summary →13 min · 8 quotes · 7 answersSound & programs
Hemi-Sync: audio and attention
Hemi-Sync is Monroe's sound method: different tones in each ear, layered with music and voice, meant to guide attention into set states.
Read the summary →13 min · 8 quotes · 7 answers