Big ideas · 11 MIN READ · 7 SOURCE QUOTES
The vibrations
The vibrations are the sensation that opened Monroe's story. For weeks before his first out-of-body experience in 1958, a vibration would run through his whole body when he lay down for a nap or for the night. He compared it to an electric shot without the pain, felt rather than seen: nothing visibly shook. It came on suddenly, sometimes with a sense that his body was paralyzed, and faded after about five minutes. He saw doctors, was given pills, and feared a tumor or something worse.
What changed things was acceptance. Monroe told himself that if the vibration was going to kill him, it could, and he lay still. It faded in about five minutes and he was fine. After that he waited the vibrations out the way you wait out hiccups, which is how he came to be lying in bed on a Friday night in 1958, happily picturing the next day's gliding, when he floated up against the ceiling. He called the condition the vibrational state and treated it as the doorway to separation. He said the later consensus was that his sleep-learning sound experiments had set it off.
In Gateway the vibrations are a possibility, not a requirement. People describe buzzing or humming through the whole body, sometimes starting at the feet or building as the Focus 10 count rises, and some feel nothing at all. Monroe built the Lift Off exercise to give a taste of the floating that followed his own vibrations, and he said clearly that it was not meant to get anyone out of the body. The advice in every source is the one he learned in 1958: do not fight it, do not fear it, and let it run its course.
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.
Key points
What Monroe felt
He described a vibration through the whole body that began when he lay down for a nap or night's sleep, felt like an electric shot without pain, and showed no visible movement. Sometimes his body seemed paralyzed and he had to make a great effort to sit up, which ended it. Once he saw a glowing, sparkling ring that swept up and down his body out of his control. Each episode lasted about five minutes.
It came out of the sleep-learning work
In the late 1950s Monroe's company was testing whether people could learn during sleep. The first problem was getting them to sleep, and sound did it, producing what is now called a frequency following response. Monroe was the chief subject, went through about 150 tests and began to feel the vibrations. He said the consensus afterward was that those experiments set off his first out-of-body state.
The decision that removed the fear
Monroe first tried to force himself out of the vibration, and it kept frightening him. After 25 or 30 episodes he lay still and told himself that if it was going to kill him, so be it. It faded in five minutes. From then on he waited the vibrations out like hiccups, and his goal became to get the thing under control: first to stop it at will, then to start it when he chose. In later accounts it is simply the cue to roll out.
A pleasant mood came just before separation
On the night of the first OBE Monroe was not trying to do anything. He was waiting for the vibration to end and thinking happily about the lift of a thermal under his glider the next morning. He told one interviewer that the emotional factor of rising in the surge of a thermal was in his mind just before he bumped against the ceiling, and he repeated the detail when introducing Lift Off to Voyage groups.
How people describe it today
People report a hum felt through the whole body like a tuning fork, a buzzing that builds as the Focus 10 count rises, a gray, grainy look to the room, and a start at the feet that creeps upward. A jolt of fear is a common first reaction, and several say it passed once they let the sensation take over. Others never feel anything, and the exercises do not depend on it.
Lift Off: the exercise built around it
Lift Off, on the Freedom album, is meant to give the feel of what happened to Monroe. He told Voyage groups its sound pattern was similar to waveforms his lab used in the late 1950s, and that it was not designed to get anyone out of the body: just a fun exercise to give the sense of floating. The publisher says it helps you achieve ease with nonphysical experience.
The word means other things too
In Explorer sessions vibration also names the quality of an energy state, and Explorers sometimes report that their vibrational state changed as the monitor counted through the Focus levels. Monroe himself liked to say that human beings are forms of vibration, wave forms. Those are different uses from the body sensation that starts his story.
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.
“Unfortunately, this particular funny kind of shaking, vibrational state wouldn't be forgotten, and one time I tried to stop it and force myself out of it. And on another time, a final time, I decided, well, if it's going to kill me, it'll kill me. So I simply let it happen or exist, and after about four or five minutes, this funny kind of vibrational state just faded away. After that, I became no longer afraid that it was a terrible, terrible thing that might be killing me, or a nervous disease, or anything like that.”
“It's like an electric shot throughout your body, except there's no pain involved. … It was a sensation of vibration without any such physical or mechanical manifestation in the body.”
“A strange sense of vibration, which I felt when I lay down for a nap or for a night's sleep … when I felt the vibration begin, my body became paralyzed and I couldn't move, and it took tremendous effort to sit up. When I did, the vibrations faded away.”
“Lift Off is an attempt, not to get you out of your body, but to help you, in turn, to perhaps have the feel of floating. Absolutely, it's not [the] intent [to] do no more than give you a feel of floating. But how and what to do on this? It's just, it's just a fun thing. It goes all the way back, and here's the pattern, to that Friday night in 1958 when I had this vibrational pattern.”
“The room is gray and fuzzy … I'm vibrating like there's a hum, there's like a, like, and I feel my whole body humming like a, like a tuning fork. And I, I hear this loud whoosh right at the beginning, and everything's like grainy, like [uh], like ISO on a camera, like when you ramp up the ISO.”
“At one point he's counting … up to 10, [and] as he's counting, this frequency that he's playing is sort of coming in stronger and stronger. And when that was happening I felt my entire body vibrating, is the only way I can put it, buzzing.”
“I love the vibrational state. I love paralysis … I love all the precursor to an [OBE], because I know it's part of my explorational process. I embrace it. I enjoy it. Sometimes I enjoy it so much I just allow those vibrations to just flow. It's wonderful.”
Important things to consider
Do not fight it
Monroe's first instinct was to force himself out of the vibration, and he stayed frightened until he finally let it run. Then it faded in minutes. Pushing it away or clenching against it keeps you tense and keeps the fear going. Breathe, stay still and watch.
Interesting, not exciting
Excitement ends the state as surely as fear. Monroe's advice to a radio host who woke up each time he felt the rushing was to notice it calmly: here it is, isn't that interesting. A curious, neutral attitude lets the sensation develop or fade without a fight.
Fear arrives with the sensation
Monroe, Nelson Dellis and others describe a jolt of terror when the vibrations built or something lifted. The sensation is rarely the problem; the alarm is. Decide beforehand that you can open your eyes, move a finger or end the exercise at any time, and let the fear pass instead of reading it as a verdict.
You may feel nothing, and that is fine
Many Gateway listeners never notice vibrations, and none of the exercises depends on them. Trying to produce them tends to create tension. Notice what you do feel, whether that is heaviness, warmth, tingling or simply calm.
Similar sensations have other causes
Buzzing, jerks, heaviness and a feeling of being unable to move can arise at the edge of sleep for ordinary reasons, and Monroe and William Buhlman both mention paralysis alongside the vibrations. Only a clinician can tell you what yours are. If they are frequent, distressing or come with chest pain, breathing trouble or other symptoms, talk to a clinician.
Health caution
This is an exploration practice, not a treatment. The publisher recommends talking with a medical professional before using the Gateway audio if you have a medical condition, a tendency toward seizures, an auditory disorder, an adverse mental condition or take medication that affects your ability to relax. Monroe himself saw several doctors first.
What is and is not established
The vibrations are known through reports. Monroe gave their rate as his own estimate, and the laboratory work with him that Charles Tart describes recorded brain waves, eye movement and blood flow; the article reports no measurement of the vibrations themselves. Whether the sensation is a stage on the way to separation or an ordinary edge-of-sleep sensation interpreted through expectation is not settled.
Common questions
What are the vibrations in Monroe's teaching?
The vibrations are a whole-body sensation Monroe first felt in the late 1950s, usually when lying down to sleep. He described it as an electric shot without pain, with nothing visibly moving, sometimes with a feeling of paralysis, and lasting about five minutes. It happened some 25 or 30 times before the night in 1958 when he floated out of his body. He came to call it the vibrational state and to treat it as the doorway to separation. In Gateway it is an occasional sensation, not a requirement.
What do the vibrations feel like?
Descriptions cluster around a hum or buzz felt through the whole body. Monroe called it an electric shot without pain and said it felt mechanical and physical even though nothing visibly moved. Others compare it to a tuning fork or describe a buzzing that grows stronger as the Focus 10 count rises. It can start at the feet and creep upward, and it often comes with heaviness or a feeling of being unable to move. Many people find it startling at first; some find it enjoyable once they know what it is.
Are the vibrations dangerous?
Monroe's doctors found nothing wrong with him, and once he stopped fighting the sensation it passed within minutes each time. That is one man's report, not a medical finding, and the sensation can alarm people. If you have a medical condition, a tendency toward seizures, an auditory disorder or take medication that affects relaxation, the publisher advises checking with a medical professional before using the audio. Chest pain, breathing trouble or other symptoms belong with a clinician.
What should I do when the vibrations start?
Do what Monroe eventually did: stop fighting. Stay still, breathe and let it run its course, treating it as interesting rather than exciting or frightening. William Buhlman, a longtime out-of-body teacher, says he welcomes the vibrations and sometimes enjoys them so much that he simply lets them flow. If the sensation is too strong, you can open your eyes, move a finger or sit up; Monroe found the vibrations faded when he forced himself to sit up. Gateway exercises also end with a count back to ordinary waking awareness.
Do I need the vibrations to have an out-of-body experience?
Not necessarily. In Monroe's own case they came first, and his written method treats them as a stage on the way to separating. Buhlman calls them a precursor. But many people never notice vibrations, and the Institute's programs are not built around producing them. Monroe himself called his vibration-first onset non-classic, noting that many out-of-body experiences begin with trauma such as an accident or serious illness. The sources used here do not say how common the vibrations are among people who have OBEs.
What is the Lift Off exercise?
Lift Off is an exercise on the Freedom album, the third of the Gateway Experience albums, and Monroe also used it at the Gateway Voyage. He said its sound pattern resembles waveforms his lab used in the late 1950s and that it is not meant to get you out of your body. It is meant to give the feel of floating, the sensation that followed his own vibrations on that Friday night in 1958, and he called it just a fun thing. The publisher describes it as helping you achieve ease with nonphysical experience.
In Monroe’s books
Summarized in our own words; the books are not reproduced on this site.
Journeys Out of the Body. Monroe treats the vibrational state as a condition to accept and then master: get used to the feeling without panic, learn to make it smooth and steady rather than rough and shaking, and speed it up, since the faster, steadier form is the one that permits separation.
Journeys Out of the Body. He put the vibration's original rate at some 27 cycles per second, an estimate rather than a measurement, and wrote that harmful effects of out-of-body practice were undetermined, with no physical change that he or his physicians could attribute to it. That is his report, not a medical finding.
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