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William Buhlman
William Buhlman, who goes by Bill, is an author and workshop leader on out-of-body experiences, or OBEs. His books include Adventures Beyond the Body and The Secret of the Soul, then Adventures in the Afterlife and Higher Self Now. He dates his own first experience to 1972, and for about a decade he led the Monroe Institute's out-of-body workshop, which a 2014 magazine profile names as the OBE Intensive. The Institute's president has since said that the Institute partners with teachers like Buhlman, whose techniques are incorporated into some of its work.
His teaching rests on a few ideas. Out of body is a misleading phrase, he says, because the practice is a shift of awareness inward, from the dense physical vehicle to a finer one. Beliefs, whether religious, metaphysical or scientific, act as walls, so the explorer's first task is to question them, and the goal is to be an explorer of consciousness rather than a reader of other people's accounts. He teaches practical methods, including the target technique, which he calls very popular, advises choosing a method that fits your strengths, and recommends about half an hour of practice a day.
Set beside Monroe, Buhlman overlaps on the essentials: you are more than the physical body, direct experience outranks belief, and afterlife regions are shaped by belief, which Buhlman calls consensus realities and credits Monroe with calling territories. They differ in method and tone. Monroe built Gateway on Hemi-Sync audio and graded focus levels and asked only for one working premise. Buhlman teaches visualization and affirmation methods, says he uses hypnosis in his workshops, and states firm conclusions about death and the afterlife, including a plan for what he calls the final OBE.
Out-of-body author who led the Monroe Institute's OBE Intensive: his target technique, his view that the journey is inward, and how it compares with Monroe's.
Key points
Author and longtime Monroe Institute workshop leader
Buhlman's first two books, Adventures Beyond the Body and The Secret of the Soul, were taken up by HarperCollins; Hemi-Sync's podcast host calls them international bestsellers translated into ten languages. The same host says he led the Monroe Institute's out-of-body workshop for about a decade, and a 2014 magazine profile of Nancy and Joe McMoneagle names that program as the OBE Intensive, taught by him; the Institute's archive description of its 2014 Buhlman videos calls it the six-day Out-of-Body Exploration Intensive. Buhlman says he has led more than 200 workshops on four continents and generally has about 24 participants.
A 1972 start with the target technique
Buhlman dates his first out-of-body experience to 1972, self-initiated, and says it opened him up completely. It came through the target technique, in which you select a series of targets and imagine yourself walking to them. He has taught it for more than twenty years, says it works best for visual people, and notes that about a third of people have difficulty with it. His books, he says, describe about forty methods, and he treats the vibrations and temporary paralysis that often come first as part of the process.
Out of body, he says, really means inward
Buhlman calls out of body a flawed phrase. What feels like moving outward, he says, is a shift of awareness within yourself, from the outer dense vehicle to a less dense one, usually the astral or second body. His own early experiences were called astral projections before out of body became the standard term, and he tells workshop participants to think in terms of expanded awareness and moving inward. He adds that yogis have reported out-of-body experiences for thousands of years without anything leaving the body.
Beliefs are walls, and explorers do not just read
The idea he repeats most is that beliefs, religious, metaphysical or scientific, form a box the explorer has to break out of. He opens workshops by asking people to examine what they accept, tells them to test everything, including what he says, by their own experience, and says he doubts any man-made philosophy, his own books included. He urges listeners to become explorers of consciousness instead of readers who hop from book to book, and to keep a daily practice: half an hour is enough, ideally in a space set aside at home.
What you believe you are travels with you
Buhlman says people carry their self-image into the out-of-body state. Someone who identifies as a human woman will look like one, and the newly dead, he reports, often ask him how to fly or walk through walls because they cannot imagine it. When he stopped identifying with a body, he says, his limbs dissolved into a teardrop of awareness with 360-degree sight. From surveys of more than 18,000 people he reports that most out-of-body experiences never go beyond the person's own home.
Consensus realities, his word for Monroe's territories
For afterlife regions Buhlman uses consensus realities, places shaped by shared belief where people carry on much as before and, he says, swear they are in heaven while a larger universe goes unexplored. He credits Monroe with the word territories for the same idea. One example from his own experience is Shanghai, where he reports seeing the dead living ordinary lives in high-rise apartments. He also says that classes like those at the Monroe Institute are taught on the astral.
Preparing for the final OBE
After a stage-four cancer diagnosis in 2011, Buhlman says, his attention turned to the transition at death, which he treats as one more out-of-body experience that a person can approach on purpose. His method is a written plan: allies who know your intent, a sacred space, forgiveness and release of fear, and an affirmation such as Higher self now, recorded and played near the bedside, perhaps with Hemi-Sync. He compares it with Tibetan Buddhist chanting at a deathbed. His book Higher Self Now underlies the online course Our Incredible Journey, which Hemi-Sync hosts.
How the Monroe Institute describes his role
Scott Taylor, the Institute's president, said in a video that the Institute has broadened what it teaches about leaving the body beyond Bob Monroe's own way, and that it has partnered with teachers like Buhlman, whose generously shared techniques are incorporated into some of its work. A 2014 profile reports Nancy McMoneagle saying the Institute offers tools but no guarantee of an OBE. Its current catalog lists a five-day OBE Spectrum program; that page does not name him.
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.
“Nancy explained that many people have been attracted to TMI because of Robert Monroe’s books about his out-of-body experiences, and though there’s no guarantee to anyone that they will have an OBE, the Institute does provide techniques and tools people can use to achieve that state. In fact, TMI has one program dedicated to learning the techniques for achieving the out-of-body experience called the ‘OBE Intensive’ which is taught by William [Buhlman].”
“It's not just one way, not just like what Bob Monroe did. And so we have broadened considerably … what it means to have an out-of-body experience [and] how to do that successfully. We have partnered with some terrific teachers, so like Bill Buhlman, who has very generously shared his techniques, and so they are … incorporated into some of the work that we do.”
“Even the term out of body is a very flawed term. There is no out [of body], so, per se, it feels like that. But truly, what we're doing in an out-of-body experience, we're actually transferring or shifting our awareness within ourselves from the outer dense vehicle to a [less dense] vehicle.”
“The target technique, very popular, where you just have, you select a series of targets and you imagine yourself walking to these targets. It's — my first [out-of-body] experience occurred in ’72 using the target technique, and I've been teaching it for over 20 years, and it's effective, but it's generally more effective for people that have visual skills. Approximately a third of us have difficulty with that.”
“We have to make a concerted effort to destroy that box. Every belief is a wall. Every belief that you hold, I don't care how endearing it may be, I don't know how old it may be, it doesn't matter. If it's man-made, it's flawed. It's that simple.”
“Gateway helps you create windows and doors [in] that box. That box in which I have been, in which I am still to a very great degree. And your box is much the same. [I’ve been in] your box. My box has many holes in it now, of course. And yet, that box still exists because I am here now.”
“And if we don't, we will end up like billions of people have throughout history. They will make the great transition of death and go from the physical outer world, and they will move that far inward to a consensus reality or territory, as Bob would say, on the astral. And they'll swear they're in heaven when there's an entire universe of countless realities and dimensions yet there to explore and experience. But we have to open to this. We have to truly let go and become explorers of consciousness, not just readers of consciousness.”
“Death is an opportunity for an enlightened transition into a much higher state of consciousness. But it's up to us to take the reins. We can't depend on anyone else to do it for us. We have to take control over our state of consciousness and have our own goals in place, because the consciousness is all we can take with us. Really, exactly, nothing else goes.”
Important things to consider
His strongest claims are his own conclusions
Buhlman says millions of out-of-body and near-death reports prove the brain is not the source of consciousness and that we continue after death, and he cites his own surveys of more than 18,000 people. The available material contains his assertions, not the data, and the Institute describes its own programs in terms of experience. Read him as one experienced teacher's interpretation.
Fit the method to your strengths
His advice is to look at your strengths before choosing a technique: targets for visual people, touch or affirmations for others. He says some people need a year for a first breakthrough, and he suggests half an hour a day, ideally in a space set aside at home.
He is blunt about belief systems
Buhlman calls religion, New Age philosophy and mainstream physics alike flawed, and he knows the language can bristle. You do not need his conclusions to use his techniques, and the Institute describes its own principle as working with as little dogma as possible, welcoming people from every tradition.
End-of-life planning is personal
His plan for his own death includes staying as conscious as possible, controlling how much morphine he takes, and cremation to loosen attachment to the body. Those are his preferences and his spiritual practice. Medication, hospice and funeral decisions belong to the person, the family and the care team.
Check spelling and titles when searching
His surname is Buhlman, though transcripts and podcasts often write Bulman or Buhiman. Several podcast speakers call his afterlife book Journey to the Afterlife or similar; the title he and Hemi-Sync use is Adventures in the Afterlife.
A video that pairs Monroe and Buhlman
The video titled with both names joins separate recordings: audio of Monroe, including his welcome talk to a Gateway Voyage group, followed by an excerpt of the same 2014 seminar talk by Buhlman used here. The two men are not in conversation.
An out-of-body experience is optional at the Institute
Nancy McMoneagle said in 2014 that, though many people come to the Institute because of Monroe's out-of-body books, there is no guarantee of an OBE and most of its emphasis is on expanded states of consciousness. Gateway participants do not need Buhlman's methods.
Common questions
Who is William Buhlman?
William (Bill) Buhlman is an author and workshop leader on out-of-body experiences. He says his own experiences began in 1972 and that he has led more than 200 workshops on four continents, from Japan to Caracas; he also led the Monroe Institute's out-of-body workshop. His books include Adventures Beyond the Body and The Secret of the Soul, which Hemi-Sync's podcast host says HarperCollins picked up and which became international bestsellers, and the later Adventures in the Afterlife and Higher Self Now. The Institute's president has said the Institute incorporates his techniques into some of its work.
What did Buhlman teach at the Monroe Institute?
A 2014 magazine profile of Nancy and Joe McMoneagle says the Institute had one program devoted to out-of-body techniques, the OBE Intensive, taught by Buhlman, and Hemi-Sync's podcast says he led it for about a decade. He describes a six-day workshop in which he asks participants to examine their beliefs, and he says his teaching draws on visualization methods such as the target technique, affirmations and hypnosis. The podcast also describes a four-day Higher Self Now workshop he gave there that became an online course. The Institute's current catalog lists a five-day OBE Spectrum program that does not name him, so check the current schedule.
What is Buhlman's target technique?
It is a visualization method. You select a series of targets and imagine yourself walking to them. Buhlman says his first out-of-body experience came in 1972 through this method and that he has taught it for more than twenty years. He cautions that it suits visual people, since about a third have difficulty visualizing, and recommends that others use whatever fits, such as touch-based methods or affirmations. His books describe about forty methods in all. He suggests half an hour a day and says some people need a year for a breakthrough while others need far less.
Why does Buhlman say out of body is the wrong phrase?
He argues that nothing really goes out. What feels like moving outward is a shift of awareness within yourself, from the outer, dense physical vehicle to a less dense one, usually the astral or second body. He says the label stuck for cultural reasons: his early experiences were called astral projections, and out of body is simply the term people recognize. He tells workshop participants it is really about expanded awareness and moving inward, and notes that yogis report out-of-body experiences without leaving the body. A related point is that your self-image, gender and human form included, travels with you until you let it go.
How is Buhlman's approach different from Robert Monroe's?
They overlap more than they differ. Monroe told a Gateway Voyage group his job was to help them make windows and doors in the box their beliefs build; Buhlman says every belief is a wall. Both describe afterlife regions shaped by belief, which Buhlman calls consensus realities and credits Monroe with calling territories. He also praises Monroe as one of few authors whose traveler is a point of consciousness rather than a human-shaped figure. The differences are in method and certainty. Monroe built Gateway on Hemi-Sync audio and a staged series of focus levels, and asked participants to consider only that they are more than their physical body. Buhlman teaches mental techniques, affirmations and hypnosis, and states conclusions about death with far more confidence.
What does Buhlman mean by the final OBE and Higher Self Now?
Buhlman treats death as one more out-of-body experience, the final OBE, and argues that people can prepare for it deliberately. After a stage-four cancer diagnosis in 2011 he wrote Adventures in the Afterlife and Higher Self Now. His plan is a written spiritual directive, allies who know your intentions, a sacred space, forgiving yourself and others, and an affirmation, Higher self now, recorded and played near the bedside, perhaps with Hemi-Sync. He cites Tibetan Buddhist deathbed chanting as precedent. The online course Our Incredible Journey, hosted by Hemi-Sync, builds on this and is meant to be taken over about 21 days. It is a spiritual practice and his personal view, not medical guidance.
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