Big ideas · 12 MIN READ · 7 SOURCE QUOTES
The second body
The second body is Robert Monroe's term for the nonphysical form he found himself in when he separated from his physical body, first described in Journeys Out of the Body (1971). He called the condition the second state and the form the second body because he had no terminology he trusted, and he preferred the plain label to astral, a word he linked with occult tradition and said he did not understand. In his reports the second body looks like a lighter, less dense copy of the physical one and has working senses, including touch.
Over years of experiments Monroe catalogued how it behaves. It has weight, though far less than the physical body. It passes through walls. It can be stretched or reshaped by thought. Under some conditions other people see it: one friend described a gray, chiffon-like shape in her living room. He felt a thick, cable-like cord rooted in his back, and electric fields interfered with the second body, as a charged wire cage showed in 1960. Its natural environment, he concluded, is Locale II rather than the physical world.
The concept did not stay fixed. Far Journeys (1985) describes a near second body that must be released before you can travel far, and Ultimate Journey (1994) stresses how plastic it is. In talks Monroe said the energy involved is not electromagnetic, and in his last years he described out-of-body experience as a shift of phasing instead of a body leaving. Laboratory monitors still used the older words, telling Explorers to release the second body to go deeper.
Monroe's name for the lighter, shape-changing form he occupied out of body: what he reported about it, and how phasing later reframed it.
Key points
A deliberately plain name
Monroe coined second state and second body because he found no suitable terms. He avoided astral because he did not know what it meant and linked it with occult practice, though he noted that the second-body idea appears in the mystical literature of Egypt, India and China and in reports of religious ecstasy. He was surprised that much of his own data seemed to support the occult picture once translated into modern language. The same instinct for neutral labels later produced the numbered Focus levels.
A lighter double with working senses
In Far Journeys Monroe recalls noticing a second form just before re-entering his physical body, identical in appearance but less dense; on return it seemed the more solid of the two, and the physical body felt definite only after he slipped into it. In his first book he reports that touch in the second body is essentially the same as in the physical one: when his hands felt each other the sensation was identical, flesh meeting flesh.
Weight, density and passing through walls
Monroe reported that the second body has weight and is subject to gravity, though far less than the physical body. In a half-out experiment, with only his legs and hips separated, they drifted down and draped over the bed the way a feather would fall. He reasoned that anything able to pass through a wall must have very low density, and that the resistance he felt at walls might be a kind of vibrational surface tension that gives way once broken.
Shape follows thought
The second body is very plastic. In the first book Monroe describes stretching an arm to twice its normal length. In Ultimate Journey he compares the form to gelatin released from a mold, able to slump into a blob and be reshaped into a human figure by a single thought, while the person inside stays the same.
Seen by others, sometimes
Monroe found that the second body can sometimes be seen. In daylight tests he thought he saw light radiating around the outline of his own limbs while the rest stayed invisible. More striking was a friend who told him that, reading the paper after supper, she looked up and saw something like a piece of gray chiffon waving in midair; she asked aloud whether it was him, and it backed away and faded. He could not say under what conditions a fully conscious observer perceives it.
A cord, and a sudden tug
In one experiment Monroe reached behind himself while out and felt a warm, flexible cable about two inches thick, made of hundreds of tendon-like strands, with roots spreading across his back. In another he was pulled backward in an arc, re-entered his body and found someone knocking at the door; he wondered whether that was the cord he had read about. He later reasoned that a connection spanning long trips would have to be as elastic as the second body itself.
Electricity and the Faraday cage
In July 1960 Monroe tried to leave while inside a charged Faraday cage of copper screen at 50,000 volts DC and found himself tangled in what felt like a flexible wire bag he could not pass. Early on, overhead power cables also seemed to bar distance travel. He proposed a third force, related to electricity and magnetism but distinct, as the energy by which the second body operates. In a later radio interview he said it is not electromagnetic but a field science cannot yet measure.
Home environment: Locale II
Monroe concluded that Locale II is the second body's home environment, and that its action, composition, perception and control all follow that nonphysical world's rules. That is why his trips to physical destinations kept turning into involuntary trips there. He compared using the second body in the physical world to sending a diver to the sea floor without equipment: possible briefly, but forced. The Locales page covers what he found.
From body to state: how the idea changed
In Far Journeys Monroe describes a near second body, hovering within ten or fifteen feet of the physical, that he had to release before he could move away; he recalls the key to release as a mental box where distracting thoughts can be set aside. In Gateway Voyage talks he warned that the mind immediately translates nonphysical perception into physical terms such as seeing, hearing and familiar physical shapes. The Monroe Institute's overview takes the next step: in phasing terms there is no leaving the body.
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, I've just learned, of course, that it's not electromagnetic. That's for sure. … We've become very acutely aware of an energy field that our science knows nothing about, because of the simple reason they can't measure it. And, and you are using this right now. In other words, … Skip was talking about brain wave patterns, but these are generated by this other energy field, and they're the effect, and the [causative] factor is this other energy field.”
“How did we get there? Well, we began from the out of body experience in trying to determine what was this energy that was used. We discovered, first of all, that it's not biochemical, it's not a chemical energy, it's not an electrical energy. What was it? Well, we're a little bit farther down the path some 20 years later, but not too far.”
“The biggest problem, of course, … is that you're getting also into other means of perception that are non-physical. And we immediately attempt to translate them into physical interpretations, or like seeing, hearing and so on. And you do gradually get past that. And we also tend to translate these in terms [of] physical artifacts or our physical matter shapes.”
“If you haven't consciously released the second body, do that now. Just release it to go into a deeper state. Take yourself to Focus 21. I will wait until I hear from you. Report to me anything that comes into your awareness or into your perceptual field in any way.”
“Well, they're very interested in my physical body. They haven't got an index on my physical body; they're dealing with a, another body, a second body. They're interested—they perceive us as, as having these, at least these, two bodies with a separate consciousness, which they are able to separate.”
“Death is nothing more [than] the transfer of consciousness from our outer, dense vehicle of consciousness to our less dense vehicle of consciousness. For most people, that will be their, what is commonly called, their astral body. Some people call it their second body.”
“My body is phased out of itself, it feels like. And as soon as I try to move, my physical body doesn't move; this other body moves, and it starts to just levitate above my physical body. And this might sound cool or something, but it was genuinely terrifying. And I had no control over this other body, really, or very little.”
Important things to consider
These are Monroe's reports, not measurements
The second body's weight, cord and reaction to electric fields come from Monroe's own notes. In the first book he says validation would take a far larger organized effort than one subject and a few scientists, and in a later interview he conceded that current science cannot measure the energy involved. Read the second body as Monroe's detailed, consistent working model of his experience, not an established anatomy.
Gateway does not require a body-leaving experience
Most Gateway listeners never see a second body, and Focus 10 is valuable on its own as calm, alert awareness. Many reports describe only a change of scene, a presence or expanded awareness with no body image at all. A body-like experience is one way the same shift can present itself.
Fear is the first obstacle
Monroe wrote that separation from the physical body resembles what we expect at death, which triggers an automatic urge to get back in, followed by worry about being unable to return. It took him some eighteen to twenty repetitions before he could stay out more than a few seconds and observe calmly, and others who tried stopped after one or two attempts. Gateway's slow, repeated approach to Focus 10 suits that reality.
Astral body and second body are close, not identical
Monroe declined the word astral and kept his own terms, partly because astral literature describes planes and levels he had not verified. Writers such as William Buhlman use astral body and second body for the same vehicle, which he says continues after death. When reading across authors, separate Monroe's observed properties from other traditions' claims about the afterlife.
The human shape may be a translation
In Gateway Voyage talks Monroe cautioned that as perception moves beyond the physical, the mind immediately translates it into physical interpretations such as seeing and hearing, and into familiar shapes. Whether a human-shaped second body is partly such a translation is an open question; either way, notice how much of any report is interpretation, especially your own.
Health caution
These are practices and reports, not treatments. If you have a seizure disorder or a serious mental-health condition, or if body-leaving sensations frighten you, read the publisher's guidance and speak with your clinician before using audio entrainment.
Where it sits in the program
In Institute practice the second body is background vocabulary. Laboratory monitors used it, for example by telling Explorers to release it to go deeper, but the Gateway exercises themselves are organized by Focus level. The vibrations and out-of-body pages cover the way in, and the Locales page covers where Monroe said the second body naturally goes.
Common questions
What is the second body?
The second body is Robert Monroe's name for the nonphysical form he reported occupying during out-of-body experiences, introduced in Journeys Out of the Body (1971) along with second state for the condition. In his notes it resembles a lighter copy of the physical body, has working senses including touch, weighs far less, passes through walls and can be stretched or reshaped by thought. A flexible cord-like connection appears in some of his accounts, and its natural environment is the nonphysical Locale II. Later he spoke less about a body and more about phasing.
Is the second body the same as the astral body?
They overlap, but Monroe did not treat them as the same thing. He avoided the word astral because he said he did not know what it meant and linked it with occult writing, so he chose second body. Both ideas describe a nonphysical form that can leave the physical body, and authors such as William Buhlman use the two terms for one vehicle that he says continues after death. In Monroe's own work the second body is a reported experience; claims about astral planes come from other traditions.
Is there a silver cord?
Monroe did describe a cord, though he did not call it silver. In one experiment he reached back and felt a warm, flexible cable about two inches thick, made of tendon-like strands, rooted across his back. After a sudden tug pulled him back into his body just as someone knocked at his door, he wondered whether that was the cord he had read about. He suggested that a connection spanning long trips would need to be very elastic.
Can other people see the second body?
Monroe thought so under some conditions. A friend told him she had seen a gray, chiffon-like shape waving in her living room while fully awake in artificial light, and she wondered aloud if it was him before it faded. He wrote that he did not know what conditions allow a fully conscious observer to notice it. Gateway participants describe their own side of it too, such as a video creator who recalled an other body lifting above his physical body.
Can the second body really pass through walls?
In Monroe's reports it does. He wrote that the second body is dense enough to feel gravity slightly but loose enough to sift through the spaces in solid matter, and he noticed an initial resistance at walls before it passed. He also reported limits. A charged Faraday cage stopped him, and in a 1985 radio call-in show he said you cannot open a door in that state, though walls are no obstacle.
Did Monroe change his mind about the second body?
His emphasis changed more than his observations. The first book treats the second body as a physical-like vehicle with observed traits. Far Journeys describes a near second body that must be released before distant travel, and Ultimate Journey stresses its plasticity. In talks he described out-of-body states as degrees of phasing: a shift in how much of your awareness is focused on physical time-space. The Institute's overview concludes there is no leaving the body at all, though laboratory monitors kept saying release the second body.
Do I have to leave my body to use the Gateway Experience?
No. Gateway is organized around Focus levels, starting with Focus 10, mind awake and body asleep, and many listeners never have a body-leaving experience. The exercises teach you to move your awareness, not to produce one particular sensation. If a body-like experience happens, treat it as one way the shift shows up; if it never does, nothing in the program depends on it.
In Monroe’s books
Summarized in our own words; the books are not reproduced on this site.
Journeys Out of the Body. Monroe coins second state and second body, declines the word astral, and notes second-body ideas across cultures and religious traditions. He then lists observed traits, including weight, visibility, touch, plasticity, a cord and sensitivity to electrical fields, and in the chapter Mind and Supermind turns to how the mind behaves while out.
Far Journeys. Monroe describes a near second body, identical in appearance but less dense, hovering within ten or fifteen feet of the physical until released, and recalls teaching trainees to release by setting distracting thoughts in a mental repository box.
Ultimate Journey. Ultimate Journey calls the second body extremely plastic, like gelatin out of its mold: it can slump toward a blob and be reformed as a human shape by thought, while the person remains the same.
Keep exploring
Prepared answers open instantly in the chat; anything else you ask gets a fresh answer.
Connected ideas
Big 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
Locale I, II and III
Monroe's first map of where he went out of body: the physical Here-Now, a vast nonphysical realm shaped by thought, and a different Earth-like world.
Read the summary →12 min · 7 quotes · 7 answersBig ideas
The vibrations
The vibrations are the whole-body buzzing Monroe felt before his first OBE in 1958; he stopped fearing them, and Gateway listeners report similar sensations.
Read the summary →11 min · 7 quotes · 6 answersBig ideas
Phasing
Monroe's later way to describe every shift in awareness: not a body traveling elsewhere, but how much of your attention is tuned to physical reality.
Read the summary →12 min · 7 quotes · 7 answersGateway practices
Monroe's out-of-body techniques
Monroe's method was patient, not a trick: relax to the edge of sleep, accept the vibrations, then roll or float out, best after waking from sleep.
Read the summary →12 min · 7 quotes · 7 answers