Dr. Charles Tart's Study of
Verified Perception
in Out-of-Body Experiences
Dr.
Charles Tart,
www.issc-taste.org and
www.paradigm-sys.com, is a transpersonal
psychologist and parapsychologist known for
his psychological work on the nature of consciousness
(particularly altered states of consciousness),
as one of the founders of the field of
transpersonal psychology, and for his research
in scientific parapsychology. He earned his
Ph. D. in psychology from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
in 1963. His first books,
Altered States of Consciousness and
Transpersonal Psychologies, became widely
used texts which were instrumental in allowing
these areas to become part of modern psychology.
Dr. Tart has been involved with research and
theory in the fields of hypnosis, psychology,
transpersonal psychology, parapsychology, consciousness
and mindfulness since 1963. He has authored
over a dozen books, two of which became widely-used
textbooks; he has had
more than 250 articles published in professional
journals and books, including lead articles
in such prestigious scientific journals as
Science and
Nature, and provides regular public speaking
appearances.
The
following is an excerpt from an article by Dr.
Tart published in the
Journal of the American Society for Psychical
Research. In it, Dr. Tart documents the
out-of-body experience of a young woman who
was one of his research subjects. What makes
this particular out-of-body experience
remarkable is how she was able to leave her
physical body and read a 5-digit number,
which was at a significant distance, and
correctly give it to Dr. Tart upon
return. The odds of guessing a
5-digit number correctly is 1 in 100,000. Her OBE a good example of "veridical
perception" where verified events
are observed while in an out-of-body state.
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1. Charles Tart's "The End of Materialism"
Amazon Book Review |
|
5
STARS - Tart's Best Bet - By Stephen P.
Smith (May 7, 2009)
Tart believes
that the big five, his referral to
telepathy,
clairvoyance,
precognition,
psychokinesis,
and
psychic healing, are well supported
by scientific evidence. Tart reviews this
evidence, but wants to go to the next step:
to consider other paranormal phenomena,
and to look at the issue of what these phenomena
mean in a philosophical sense (his best
bet).
Tart confronts
this issue of belief and knowledge, and
how we humans struggle with meaning. He
(page 25) writes
"Things
that we believe that we don't know
we believe, though, are like a set
of chains. They just automatically
affect our perceptions and thoughts,
and trap us."
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Tart (page 34) writes:
"If you
don't consciously see that you have
competing, clashing views of something,
it won't feel as if you have a conflict.
But, at a deeper, psychological
level, your psyche is not whole
when you do this; the conflict will
exact a price from you on less-conscious
levels."
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This struggle is
most apparent in a misplace certainty given
to a science turned scientism, with materialistic
philosophy at its core. Tart (page 37) writes:
"Scientism
has uselessly hurt enormous numbers
of people, and we must distinguish
scientism from science if we want
any hope of science and spirituality
helping each other."
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Tart (page 38) writes:
"Until we
learn to distinguish essential science
from scientism, we remain vulnerable
to false invalidation, which seems
to have the full power and prestige
of science behind it but is really
an arbitrary, philosophical opinion.
And we lose the ability to constructively
apply essential science to increase
our understanding of and effectiveness
with spirituality."
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Tart (page 67) writes:
"Pseudoskeptics
aren't actually skeptics in a genuine
sense; they're believers in some
other system, out to attack and
debunk what they don't believe in
while trying to appear open minded
and scientific, even though they're
not." Tart continues: "Various media
love to report in these controversies
stirred up by pseudoskeptics, and
usually give the pseudoskeptics
high, expert status and make the
arguments sound serious, either
because (1) the people running a
particular reporting medium are
themselves pseudoskeptical, committed
to scientific materialism, (2) as
cynical media people have put it
for decades, controversy sells more
newspapers than accurate reporting,
or (3) both."
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Tart (page 192)
writes:
"Try to
always notice when I write [scientism]
rather than [science]. A major aspect
of my personal identity is being
a scientist and thinking like a
scientist, and I consider science
to be a noble calling that demands
the best of me. I want to use genuine,
essential science to help our understanding
in all areas of life, including
the spiritual. Scientism, on the
other hand, is a perversion of genuine
science. Scientism in our time consists
mainly of a dogmatic commitment
to a materialist philosophy that
dismisses and [explains away] the
spiritual, rather than actually
examining it carefully and trying
to understand it."
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Among the
various accounts of paranormal phenomena
presented by Tart, there is one
interesting account of an out-of-body
experience (OBE), where a hidden
number is revealed (page 204):
"The number
25132 was indeed the correct target
number near the ceiling above here
bed. I had learned something about
designing experiments since my first
OBE experiment, and precise evaluation
was possible here. The odds against
guessing a five-digit number by
chance alone on one try are hundreds
thousand to one, so this is a remarkable
event! Note also that Miss Z had
apparently expected me to have the
target number propped up against
the wall behind the self, but she
correctly reported that is was lying
flat. She had also hoped to pass
through the wall or closed door
and see a second target number in
the control room, but could not
do so."
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Tart (page 226)
describes Dennis Hill's near-death experience
(NDE), and quotes Hill:
"There is
a sudden rush of expansion into
boundaryless awareness. I feel utter
serenity infused with radiant joy.
There is perfect stillness; no thoughts,
no memories. In the rapturous state,
free from the limitations of time
and space, beyond the body and the
mind, I have no memory of ever having
been other that This."
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And Tart (page 229)
speculates:
"If NDEs
were nothing but hallucinatory experiences
induced by a malfunctioning brain
as a person dies, as materialists
want to believe, then we would expect
great variation from person to person,
and the qualities of experience
would be largely determined by the
culture and beliefs of each person
experiencing the NDE. Instead, we
have great similarity across cultures
and belief systems, arguing that
there's something real about NDE
rather that its being nothing but
a hallucination."
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Tart (page 246)
takes a materialist rejection of after-death
communication, and turns it into an absurd
darkness:
"I personally
find the materialistic idea quite
depressing - an admission that,
to materialists, will simply show
that I have neurotic hopes and lack
the courage to face the facts. If
I believed that there's no hope
of any kind of survival, I would
adapt as much as possible by becoming
more normal in this materialistic
age. That is, I would show excessive
concern for my health, promote research
that supports health and increases
our life spans, and avoid taking
any unnecessary risks that might
endanger my health or my life, while
otherwise trying to maximize my
pleasure and minimize my pain. Psychologically,
I would try not to think about the
depressing reality and finality
of death, would work on distracting
myself with constant pleasurable
pursuits, and if the above steps
weren't enough, to find a doctor
who would prescribe mood-altering
medications so I wouldn't feel depressed."
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Tart (page 291)
provides a neat summary:
"When we
look at paraconceptual phenomena
in detail, in the science of parapsychology
we find, grouped for convenience,
two categories. Group one, the big
five - telepathy, clairvoyance,
precognition, psychokinesis, and
psychic healing - are psi phenomena
whose existence is supported by
hundreds of rigorous experiments
for each phenomenon. Group two,
the many maybes, are phenomena that
have enough evidence that it would
be foolish to simply dismiss them
as unreal, but not enough evidence,
in my estimate, to make them foundation
realities for further research as
the big five are. The many maybes
that we've surveyed in this book
(which certainly aren't all of them)
are postcognition, out-of-body experiences
(OBEs), near death experiences (NDEs),
after-death communications (ADCs),
and postmortem survival in some
kind of afterlife as primary evidenced
through mediumship and reincarnation
cases."
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Tart (page 291)
continues:
"The big
five paint a picture of humans as
being who are more than just their
physical bodies, beings who can
sometimes communicate mind to mind,
sometimes clairvoyantly know the
state of the physical world, sometimes
predict an inherently (by physical
laws) unpredictable future, sometimes
affects, for the better, other biological
systems, as in psychic healing.
Traditional spiritual systems in
general tell us that ordinary, physical
life is only part of reality; there's
a larger, more encompassing spiritual
reality beyond the ordinary space,
time, and embodiment, and the big
five can readily be seen as glimpses
of mind operating in this larger
reality."
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Tart is describing
"the end of materialism," as the evidence
he brings forth supports his best conclusion
(page 310):
"My current
best bet is that there's a real
spiritual realm, as real or perhaps
even more real (in some sense that's
hard to understand in our ordinary
state of consciousness) than ordinary
material reality. My current best
bet is that this spiritual realm
has purpose and is intelligent and
loving in some profound sense. My
current best bet is that our human
nature partakes of this spiritual
nature. The deep experience of many
mystics that are one with all of
reality, including spiritual reality,
is about something vital and true.
The several psychic ways we occasionally
connect with each other (telepathy)
and the material world (clairvoyance)
are partial manifestations of this
inherent connection with all of
reality, spiritual as well as material."
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2. A Psychophysiological Study of OBEs
in a Selected Subject |
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by Charles
T. Tart
Originally published in the
Journal of the American Society for Psychical
Research, 1968, vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 3-27.
ABSTRACT: A young
woman who frequently had spontaneous
out-of-body experiences was studied in a
sleep laboratory for four nights. She reported
several partially out experiences and two full
ones. While the physiological data are limited
by dependence on her retrospective report in
correlating physiological pattern with the experience,
it seems as if her out experiences occurred
in conjunction with a non-dreaming, non-awake
brain wave stage characterized by predominant
slowed
alpha activity from her brain and no activation
of the
autonomic nervous system. Two incidents
occurring in the laboratory provide suggestive
evidence that the out of-the-body experiences
had
parapsychological concomitants.
Out-of-the-body (OOB)
experiences have always been a peripheral problem
in psychical research in spite of the fact that
their important implications for the question
of survival, as well as their inherent interest,
have long been recognized. This neglect has
been due to the fact that an experimental approach
to the study of OOB experiences is extremely
difficult. In the vast majority of reported
cases, the experience occurred only once in
the lifetime of an otherwise "ungifted" person.
The occasional persons who have claimed to produce
such experiences at will (26,
44,
64) have,
by and large, not been investigated by psychical
researchers, although the reason for this lack
of investigation is not clear. The few "experimental"
attempts to produce such experiences have almost
exclusively been older attempts involving the
use of
hypnosis (8,
pp. 146-154;
21).
Thus we have a phenomenon
whose occurrence is quite rare, which we do
not know how to produce experimentally, and
whose "spontaneous" occurrence cannot be predicted.
We cannot study a phenomenon very thoroughly
which does not occur when we are prepared to
study it. Aside from
Hornell Hart's excellent beginning work
(29;
30, pp. 91-93;
31) and
some recent work by
Robert Crookall (10,
11,
12) on
the experiential content of reported OOB experiences
and some of their reported antecedents, we know
virtually nothing about the nature of such experiences
and their possible causes.
I have been interested
in OOB experiences for several years and have
often talked about this phenomenon with acquaintances.
During a conversation with a friend (whom we
shall call Miss Z) a couple of years ago, she
reported that she had spontaneous OOB experiences
approximately two to four times a week and that
she would be interested in being studied in
the laboratory. As this afforded an unusual
opportunity for research, I studied her for
four nights in a sleep laboratory in order to
determine what, if any, psychophysiological
correlates of her OOB experiences occurred.
This paper will describe Miss Z and her spontaneous
experiences, and report on the psychophysiological
studies which were carried out.
Miss Z is a young,
unmarried woman in her early twenties, with
two years of college education. Her education
was temporarily interrupted at the time of this
study because of her need to work in order to
earn money to continue at college. She is a
warm and highly intelligent person, and had
great interest in what the study would show.
Psychologically,
it is extremely difficult to describe Miss Z.
My informal observations of her over a period
of several months (undoubtedly distorted by
the fact that one can never describe one's friends
objectively) resulted in a picture of a person
who in some ways was quite mature and insightful,
and in other ways so extremely disturbed psychologically
that at times, when she lost control, she could
possibly be diagnosed as
schizophrenic. Miss Z came from a broken
home. She recounted a number of instances of
apparent parapsychological interaction between
her and her parents as well as between her and
her foster parents. She had been hospitalized
for several weeks for psychiatric treatment
about a year prior to the present study. Despite
numerous psychological difficulties in her personal
life during the several months over which the
experiment was carried out, however, Miss Z
did not interject her personal difficulties
into the experimentation.
Miss Z's OOB experiences
were almost all of one kind. She would wake
once or twice during a night's sleep. Each time
she would find herself floating near the ceiling,
but otherwise seemingly wide awake. This condition
would last for a few seconds to half a minute.
She frequently observed her physical body lying
on the bed. Then she would fall asleep again
and that was all there was to the experience.
As far as she could recall, these experiences
had been occurring several times weekly all
of her life. As a child, she had not realized
that there was anything unusual about them.
She assumed that everyone had such experiences
during sleep, and never thought to mention them
to anyone. After speaking about them to friends
several times as a teenager, however, she realized
that they were looked upon as "queer" experiences,
and she stopped discussing them.
At the time of the
experiment, she had never read anything about
such experiences. After initially hearing about
her experiences, I asked her to refrain from
reading anything about them until our experiments
were completed, and she complied with this request.
Note that Miss Z
had never made any attempts to control her OOB
experiences, nor did she attach any great significance
to them. She definitely felt that they were
not
dreams, but she was otherwise puzzled as
to what they were.
On a few occasions
Miss Z's OOB experiences had seemed to transport
her to distant locations, rather than just floating
above her body. One experience she reported
is particularly relevant here. It is not certain
whether it was a nightmare with elements of
ESP in it, or a genuine OOB experience.
At about the age of fourteen, she had a vivid
"nightmare" in which she found herself walking
down a dark street in a deserted part of her
own home town. She noticed the clothes she was
wearing, including a checked skirt; she realized
that she did not own any clothes like this,
and felt that she was in someone else's body.
Someone was following her, and she was terrified.
This person caught up with her, raped her, and
then stabbed her to death. Miss Z's memory of
what happened near the end of this sequence
is very poor, but she awoke quite disturbed
and horrified because this "nightmare" had seemed
so terribly real. She reported that the next
day there was a story in the newspaper about
a girl who had been wearing a checked shirt
having been raped and stabbed to death the previous
evening in the part of town corresponding to
her "nightmare" locale. This experience made
a considerable impression on Miss Z and will
be relevant to one of the events which happened
in the laboratory, described below.
My interest in OOB
experiences has two separate facets. On one
level, I am interested in such experiences as
a unique, psychological experience, possibly
related to nocturnal dreaming. On another level,
I am interested in the extrasensory aspects
of the experience: in some OOB experiences the
person reports accurate information about the
distant localities he seemed to be at, and such
information would apparently have to have been
acquired by some form of extrasensory perception.
Thus we have a unique psychological experience
worthy of study in its own right, as well as
an experience that often seems to have parapsychological
aspects.
In my initial talks
with Miss Z, I explained to her that I was interested
in her OOB experiences from both of these points
of view. I suggested that she carry out some
observations on herself at home, before we began
all-night laboratory studies, in order that
she might distinguish for herself whether this
was a vivid type of dream experience only, or
whether it also possessed parapsychological
aspects. At my suggestion, then, Miss Z carried
out the following procedure.
She prepared ten
slips of paper with the numbers one to ten on
them and placed them in a large cardboard box.
Each night, after getting into bed at home,
she shook the cardboard box to randomize the
slips of paper, and then, without looking into
the box, drew out one slip of paper and put
it on her bedside table. She could not see the
number on the piece of paper from her position
in bed, but anyone with a vantage point of several
feet above the bed would be able to read the
number clearly. If she awoke while experiencing
floating near the ceiling that evening, she
was to memorize the number, and then check on
awakening in the morning to see whether she
had perceived it correctly.
When I saw her two
weeks later, she reported that she had tried
this for seven nights and found she had been
correct each time on checking in the morning.
While this cannot be cited as evidence for some
form of extrasensory perception, as it depends
entirely on the subject's word, it did suggest
that the possible parapsychological aspects
of Miss Z's OOB experiences could be studied
as well as the psychological experience per
se.
I was able to observe
Miss Z in my sleep laboratory for four non-consecutive
nights, over a period of approximately two months.
The procedure was essentially the same on all
nights, and will be described here.
Miss Z's
electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded
each night. Grass silver disk electrodes were
applied to the
vertex, the right
occipital area, and the right
frontal area (high on the forehead, just
below the hairline). Recording of the EEG was
bi-polar, frontal-to-vertex, and vertex-to-occipital.
Recording was continuous through the night on
a Grass model VII
polygraph, running at a speed of ten millimeters
per second.
Rapid eye movements (REMs) were recorded
by means of a miniature strain gauge, taped
over the right eyelid. This technique for recording
REMs is described in detail elsewhere (4,
58).
Movement of the eye under the closed eyelid
distorts the strain gauge and a corresponding
electrical output is recorded on the Grass polygraph.
This combination of two EEG channels and a REM
channel is typical in sleep studies and allows
one to discriminate the various stages of sleep,
including dreaming sleep.
Basal skin resistance (BSR) was also recorded
on the Grass polygraph. Silver-silver chloride
electrodes were used, one on the eminence
of the palm of the right hand, the other on
the right forearm. These electrodes, described
elsewhere (45),
have negligible polarization characteristics
and provide an accurate record of BSR.
Galvanic skin responses (GSRs) were recorded
from the same electrodes at a higher sensitivity
than BSR by capacitively coupling the output
of the BSR channel into a high gain channel
on a Sanborn polygraph. This latter polygraph
ran continuously through the night at a paper
speed of one millimeter per second.
On two of the four
nights, heart rate and digital blood volume
were measured by means of a Grass model PTT1
finger
photoplethysmograph. This device transmits
a beam of light through a finger, and measures
the amount of light transmitted by means of
a photo cell (7).
The output of this photo cell reproduces the
pulse wave, allowing heart rate to be measured,
and the amplitude of this tracing varies with
variations in the blood volume in the finger.
Technical difficulties with this device prevented
its use on two of the four nights.
The sleep laboratory
consisted of two rooms, each lined with acoustic
tile for
sound attenuation. A large window was between
the rooms for viewing, but in this experiment
it was covered with a Venetian blind in order
that the subject's room could be reasonably
dark for sleeping. This blind allowed enough
light to come through so that the subject's
room was dimly illuminated, but not enough to
disturb sleep. The polygraphs were located in
the second room, and the door was kept closed.
An intercom system allowed hearing anything
the subject said. I monitored the recording
equipment throughout the night while the subject
slept and kept notes of anything she said or
did. Occasionally I dozed during the night,
beside the equipment, so possible instances
of sleep talking might have been missed.

The subject slept
on a comfortable bed just below the observation
window. The leads from all electrodes were bound
into a common cable running off the top of her
head, and terminating in an electrode box on
the head of the bed. This arrangement allowed
her enough slack wire so that she could turn
over in bed and otherwise be comfortable, but
did not allow her to sit up more than two feet
without disconnecting the wires from the box,
an event which would show up on the recording
equipment as a tremendous amount of sixty cycle
artifact. Thus her movements were well controlled.
Immediately above the observation window (about
five and a half feet above the level of the
subject's head) was a small shelf (about ten
inches by five inches). Immediately above this
shelf was a large clock, mounted on the wall.
Each laboratory night, after the subject was
lying in bed, the physiological recordings were
running satisfactorily, and she was ready to
go to sleep, I went into my office down the
hall, opened a table of random numbers at random,
threw a coin onto the table as a means of random
entry into the page, and copied off the first
five digits immediately above where the coin
landed. These were copied with a black marking
pen, in figures approximately two inches high,
onto a small piece of paper. Thus they were
quite discrete visually. This five-digit random
number constituted the parapsychological target
for the evening. I then slipped it into an opaque
folder, entered the subject's room, and slipped
the piece of paper onto the shelf without at
any time exposing it to the subject. This now
provided a target which would be clearly visible
to anyone whose eyes were located approximately
six and a half feet off the floor or higher,
but was otherwise not visible to the subject.
The subject was instructed
to sleep well, to try and have an OOB experience,
and if she did so to try to wake up immediately
afterwards and tell me about it, so I could
note on the polygraph records when it had occurred.
She was also told that if she floated high enough
to read the five-digit number she should memorize
it and wake up immediately afterwards to tell
me what it was. My conversation with Miss Z
after I had prepared the target was, of course,
minimal and could not have given her any clue
as to the target number. In future experiments,
however, it would be preferable for a second
experimenter, who had had no contact at all
with the subject, to prepare the targets.
As some readers may
not be familiar with recent psychophysiological
findings on the nature of sleep, a brief review
of these will be presented here. More detailed
reviews and evaluations of the more than one
hundred studies of the past decade which have
so changed our view of sleep and dream activity
may be found elsewhere (25,
37,
41,
47,
48,
56,
57).
Sleep may be defined in this paper as a
stage of the organism indicated (in human subjects)
by one of four EEG stages (16,
17).
The Stage 1 pattern consists of an irregular
mixture of
theta waves (4-8 cps), random low voltage
activity, occasional isolated
alphoid activity (waves of 1 to 2 cps slower
than the subject's waking alpha), and occasional
alpha waves (8-13 cps). Stage 2 contains
spindle activity (14 cps) in addition to
the above, and Stages 3 and 4 contain an increasingly
larger proportion (up to 100 per cent) of delta
waves, 1-3 cps, high amplitude, in addition
to spindle activity. The exact divisions between
Stages 2, 3, and 4 are arbitrary, based on the
percentages of
delta waves in given epochs. The Stage 1
pattern is readily distinguishable from the
other stages by its total lack of spindles and
delta waves.
Stages 1 through 4 were initially conceived
of as comprising a continuum from "light" to
"deep"
sleep (2,
3,
14),
but as other measures of the "depth" of sleep
contradict this conception (5,
32,
37,
56,
62),
this paper will treat sleep as being of two
qualitatively distinct types, namely, Stage
1 as one type and Stages 2, 3, and 4 as the
other type. Distinctions between Stages 2, 3,
and 4 will not be made, and they will be collectively
referred to as Nonstage 1 sleep.
If subjects are awakened
from the two types of sleep and asked to report
on what they have been experiencing, the reports
may be classified into two rather distinct types.
One type, awakenings from Stage 1 sleep or shortly
(within, roughly, ten to fifteen minutes) after
Stage 1 sleep has changed to Nonstage 1 sleep,
possesses the characteristics traditionally
associated with the experience of dreaming (24,
51).
Reports from Nonstage 1 sleep seem more like
"thinking," and are generally called thinking
by the subjects-these same subjects generally
refer to their Stage 1 experiences as dreams.
The psychological differences reported so far
are quantitative rather than being completely
dichotomous, but they generally give the impression
of being distinct types of experiences.
Stage 1 sleep is
almost always accompanied by binocularly synchronous
rapid eye movements (REMs), and the evidence
is very convincing that these are closely associated
with the content of the dream, if not actual
scanning movements of the dream imagery (6,
19,
53).
Such REMs have not been reported in Nonstage
1 sleep, although there are some slow, rolling
movements (37).
In view of these findings, the theoretical position
taken in this paper is that an experientially
distinct type of phenomenon occurs concurrently
with the presence of Stage 1 sleep, which phenomenon
will be called Stage 1 dreaming, or just dreaming.
The mental phenomena of Nonstage 1 sleep will
not be considered in this paper. Further, it
is assumed that the experience of Stage 1 dreaming
is essentially continuous during the presence
of Stage 1 EEG, whether or not the subject can
always recall this experience on waking. This
position is, in my opinion, supported by all
the studies using the EEG and REM technique,
and directly refuted by none.
For normal subjects,
Stage 1 dreaming and Nonstage 1 sleep alternate
in a regular cyclic fashion referred to as the
sleep-dream cycle. As the subject falls asleep
there is generally a brief (a few seconds to
a minute or two) period of Stage 1, without
REMs, but subjects' reports indicate that this
is apparently a period of
hypnagogic imagery rather than typical dreaming
(17,
47).
At approximately ninety-minute intervals through
the night there are periods of Stage I dreaming,
each dream period generally being longer than
the preceding one. The first Stage 1 period
may last for ten minutes; the fourth or fifth
one may last as long as fifty minutes. Altogether,
Stage 1 dreaming occupies between twenty and
thirty per cent of the total sleep time of most
young adults, spread over three to six Stage
1 periods. While the exact percentage of dream
time and the number of cycles varies from subject
to subject, for a given subject the
sleep-dream cycle is generally quite stable
from night to night (15,16,
40,
63).
The first night in
a dream laboratory is usually considered an
adaptation night, with the data from it not
being used in physiological studies. This is
because of the so-called
"first night effect" in which a subject
is liable to skip his first Stage 1 dream period,
and the content of his dreams is often obviously
concerned with the fact that he is being experimented
upon (1,
20,
50,
59,
61).
On her first night
in the laboratory, Miss Z fell asleep rather
rapidly, reached Stage 4 sleep within the first
half hour after falling asleep, and then showed
three Stage 1 dream periods during the course
of the night. After the first dream period,
there were scattered instances of prominent
alphoid activity, that is, a Stage 1 pattern
mixed with slowed alpha waves, and rather poorly
developed sleep spindles. The only unusual feature
of this [Note:
Within a continuous period of Stage 1 EEG, the
content of the experienced dream may be divided
into several distinct episodes so that, in a
sense, there are several distinct "dreams" within
a continuous period of dreaming. Dement and
Wolpert (19)
present some evidence
that such change of topic may he accompanied
by a gross body movement on the part of the
subject.] night was that the subject
showed REMs during Stage I
drowsiness at the beginning of sleep, a
very unusual finding. Rapid eye movements almost
never occur if normal subjects during drowsiness,
although they have been found to occur frequently
in
narcoleptics (18,
36,
49,
52).
There is no evidence that. Miss Z suffers from
narcolepsy, however, and these REMs during drowsiness
seem to be related to the unusually vivid hypnagogic
imagery that she reportedly experiences on falling
asleep.
Miss Z did not feel
that she had had any OOB experiences that night.
A number of interesting
incidents occurred during Miss Z's second night
in the laboratory.
As Miss Z went to
sleep, she showed a drowsy pattern alternating
with a waking pattern for approximately the
first ten minutes. Then there was a minute of
a drowsy EEG pattern consisting of occasional
theta waves, some alphoid waves (alpha waves
of one to one-and-a-half cycles per second slower
than her usual waking alpha), and a good deal
of flattening of the record, ending in thirteen
seconds of waking alpha rhythm, nearly continuous,
and then a large
body movement. With this body movement,
Miss Z called out that she was awake and that
she had just had a sensation of starting to
float up toward the ceiling immediately prior
to her moving and calling out. The finger photoplethysmograph
was being used on this night, and her heart
rate during this time was a steady seventy-one
beats per minute, not in the least unusual.
Her BSR was steady throughout this time, no
GSRs were seen at all, nor was there any body
movement. Also, there were no REMs during this
period.
Miss Z then went
to sleep, quickly going into Stage 2 sleep,
which lasted for about half an hour, and then
a half hour of Stage 3 and Stage 4 sleep. This
was followed by a short Stage 1 dream. Her Stage
1 dream period showed a classical Stage 1 pattern
with REMs. This dream was followed by about
an hour and a half of Stage 2 sleep, then twenty
minutes of Stage 1 sleep, and then another period
of unusual EEG. For approximately one minute
Miss Z showed a pattern of alphoid waves mixed
with poorly developed, low voltage sleep spindles.
Then there was a two-minute period of alphoid
waves superimposed on a generally low voltage
pattern with no spindles and no clearly developed
theta waves. This was followed by a minute of
predominantly low voltage theta activity, with
very poorly developed sleep spindles present,
This terminated in a large movement and Miss
Z awoke, There were no REMs during this four-minute
period, heart rate was steady at seventy-four
beats per minute, and BSR steady, with no GSRs.
There were two small body movement artifacts
during the terminal period of slowed alpha without
spindles and one small body movement in the
period of slowed alpha and poor spindling which
began this unusual EEG sequence. The sequence
occurred at approximately 3:15 A.M.
Upon awakening from
this sequence, Miss Z called out:
"Write down
3:13 A.M. I don't see the number, but
I just remember that."
|
Although she did
not say anything more, the implication, confirmed
by conversation later on that morning, was that
she had: floated somewhat above her body, high
enough to see the clock, but not high enough
to see the target number. Some further comments
on this episode will now be made.
When going back to
sleep, Miss Z showed a Stage 2 pattern for an
hour, had a dream of twenty-five minutes' duration
following that, then showed some Stage 2 and
Stage 3 for the next hour. About fifteen minutes
of record was then lost because of a paper jam.
When recording was resumed, she was showing
Stage 1 dreaming. This lasted for about ten
minutes, and then the record became rather difficult
to classify. For a period of approximately ten
minutes the EEG consisted of a great deal of
slowed alpha rhythm, no theta rhythm, and a
fair amount of flattening. It could not be classified
clearly as either a sleep or a waking pattern.
There were some occasional body movements, a
fair amount of REM activity scattered through,
and some GSR activity. Miss Z then awakened
by herself and reported that in the last five
minutes she thought she had floated in and out
of her body four or five times. Nothing else
of interest occurred that night.
|
8b1. Miss Z's Nightmare and the
Murder Case |
|
One day later, Miss
Z told me that she had had a very frightening
nightmare during her previous night in the
laboratory, which she had not reported at the
time because of its terrifying nature. She had
wanted to forget it, but had not been successful.
This nightmare had apparently occurred just
before she woke, called out the time, and reported
that she had not been able to see the target
number. I cannot be sure of this, of course,
as she did not report it at the time. The stimulus
for now reporting it was that she had seen a
television news program the night following
her night in the laboratory which made her decide
to write down an account of her nightmare immediately
because it seemed to coincide with an item in
the newscast.
Because Miss Z did
not report this material to me before seeing
the newscast, it cannot be considered evidential
of extrasensory perception. As it is quite interesting
psychologically, however, and fits in with the
earlier traumatic incident of her childhood
(described above) in which she had a nightmare
or OOB experience coinciding with the murder
of a young girl, the material will be reproduced
here. Her account, written after she saw the
newscast, is as follows:
Sunday night
- vague nightmare - recalled previous
experience ? - blocking on much of memory
- young girl (13 to 16?) - outdoors?
- stabbing, but not knife, more slender
- head hurt (slapped ?) - not stabbed,
surely - expanse of white, car white
? - knew fellow (she knew, not I!) who
also youngish - horrible experience
but no support in papers this morning
- so far so good.
|
Miss Z told me that
the television newscast said that a young girl
had been stabbed to death in Marin County. Whether
additional information was given in the newscast
is not known.
I did not check the
newspapers at the time; I wanted the incident
to die down as Miss Z was obviously rather disturbed
about it. Several months later I checked the
newspaper files in the library. Nothing had
appeared in the papers until April 20, 1965.
Miss Z's second night in the laboratory had
been the night of April 18th. Thus, as she had
said, there had been nothing in the morning
paper after she had seen the TV newscast. I
do not know if she saw anything which appeared
in the paper after that. The following material
has been taken from the April 20, 1965, edition
of the San Francisco Chronicle. (I have left
out details such as names and the like which
are not relevant to Miss Z's nightmare.) The
headline is "Girl Found Murdered in Marin."
Marin is the county immediately above San Francisco,
about forty miles north of the laboratory.
"A pretty Daly
City high school girl was found murdered
on a flower covered slope in Muir Woods
in Marin County yesterday afternoon.
She had been stabbed savagely in the
head at least six times and her skull
was crushed, Coroner Frank Keaton said.
There was no indication that she had
been raped.... The young victim was
identified as Nonita ____, sixteen.
Nonita's boyfriend is also missing and
is sought for questioning.... He was
identified as Virgilio ______, nineteen,
a resident of a San Francisco hotel.
He is driving a white 1960 Thunderbird,
police said.... The victim was fully
clad - though her underclothing was
in some disarray - in a black sweater,
red blouse, plaid skirt, tennis shoes,
and white socks. Keaton estimated that
she had been dead three or four days."
|
In the
Chronicle for April 21st, the information is
given that the police are still looking for
the boyfriend, and that the car has been found:
"... the murder
weapon-a sharp, thin instrument, a little
thicker than an ice pick-was not found
... An autopsy showed that death came
from six stabs of this weapon into her
head, one of them penetrating the brain."
|
The Chronicle of
April 22nd reports that the girl was murdered
in the car, according to bloodstains and signs
of a struggle found in the car. The Thunderbird
was parked in a San Francisco parking garage
late Friday night, and the body was apparently
in it for attendants noticed a little pool of
blood in the parking place after the car was
checked out.
After a small notice
on April 24th in the Chronicle that the FBI
had entered the case, I could find no more information
about the murder, though I searched the paper
for the next several weeks.
1. With respect to
the parallels between Miss Z's nightmare and
the murder case, we note the following:
1. |
The victim was a young girl of sixteen,
as estimated in the dream. |
2. |
The
setting of the nightmare was outdoors
and the body was apparently out-doors,
where it was found, at the time of the
dream, although the murder took place
in the car.
|
3. |
Death was
caused by stabbing with an instrument
like an ice pick, not a knife. |
4. |
Miss Z said
her head hurt, that it was slapped,
not stabbed; the girl was stabbed in
the head and her skull was crushed
|
5. |
Miss Z saw an
expanse of white in her dream and thought
it was a white car; the suspected murderer
was driving a large white car
|
6. |
Miss Z said
the murderer, a "youngish man," knew
the girl; the suspected murderer was
a young man who was a boyfriend of the
girl.
|
The parallels between
this nightmare, the actual killing, and the
incident Miss Z reported from her early teens
is striking. In the earlier nightmare incident,
the girl Miss Z identified with was also wearing
a checked or plaid skirt. In one sense, this
entire recent incident may be a reactivation
of the earlier trauma. (As mentioned above,
the nightmare can only constitute suggestive
evidence for extrasensory perception because
it was not reported to me before Miss Z saw
the television newscast.) An alternative hypothesis
is that no nightmare took place in the laboratory,
but that the TV news bulletin triggered the
earlier trauma in Miss Z's mind and she fabricated
(unknowingly) the incidents of the nightmare.
On her third night
in the laboratory, Miss Z went to sleep quickly
and showed an ordinary sleep pattern for the
first half of the night, that is, Stages 2,
3, and 4 alternating with a couple of Stage
1 dream periods at approximately ninety-minute
intervals, At 3:35 A.M. an unusual EEG pattern
sequence started which will be described here.
It began from Stage 3 sleep, which was clearly
defined by frequent, well-developed sleep spindles
and clear, high voltage delta activity. Then
there was a minute of large body movements,
followed by five minutes of alphoid activity
with no spindles, some flattening of the record,
and no REMs. Then there was another minute of
massive body movements, followed by a half minute
of rather poorly developed Stage 1 EEG, that
is, a flattened low voltage slow pattern, but
with the theta almost absent and no RE Ms. Again
there was a half minute of body movements, and
then five minutes of alphoid activity as before.
There were several bursts of twenty-four cycle
per second rhythmic activity in the frontal
channel during this five-minute period, but
it is not clear whether these were actually
EEG patterns or some sort of external electrical
artifact which happened to occur at this time.
Then for two and a half minutes the alphoid
activity was less prominent, there was some
theta activity, but still no spindle activity.
Then there were five minutes of record that
could not be classified because body movements
obscured almost all of it except for occasional
slowed alpha. Then there was a minute in which
the EEG record was clear and showed alphoid
activity predominantly, but the strain gauge
REM channel showed all sorts of artifact, such
as one might get from tremors of the eyelids.
This was followed by seven minutes of alphoid
activity, with some flattening, and continual
interference and possibly tremor on the strain
gauge REM channel. Then, after some more body
movement, there were three minutes of waking
alpha rhythm with high amplitude REMs. The subject
may very well have been awake during this brief
period. Then followed a minute and a half of
Stage 1 pattern with REMs (dreaming), although
the theta was rather poorly developed. There
were some occasional bursts of twenty-four cycles
per second activity in both EEG channels again.
This gave way to seventeen minutes of alphoid
activity with no REMs and only a couple of small
movements of the body scattered through this
period. There were occasional GSRs during this
long period of EEG disturbance. Then there were
a couple of minutes of Stage 1 EEG pattern,
with occasional REMs (dreaming), and Miss Z
awoke. She reported on OOB experience. After
her final awakening later in the morning, she
wrote a full account of this experience, as
follows:
"I seemed to
be flying, although too high and seemingly
fast to recognize where I was; neither
did I have any sense of where I was
going. The flying disturbed me as I
knew I was supposed to stand up in the
room and read the number above my head,
Therefore, I would rouse or questionably
awaken and realize that I was still
lying on the bed. Every time I drifted
off to sleep I would resume flying,
however. This was not preceded by any
other activity-that is, there seemed
to be no intermediate experience between
falling asleep on the cot and flying.
Finally, the third or fourth time I
flew I decided to relax and let the
experience come to completion. Very
shortly (that is, in far less time than
was objectively possible- I would say
less than two minutes) I realized I
was on my way home; that somehow my
sister was involved in the experience.
Essentially simultaneously with this
realization I found myself in my home
in Southern California, in the living
room. Seated in the rocker was my sister,
dressed in her pajamas. She seemed upset,
somewhat frightened; however, she recognized
me immediately and did not seem particularly
surprised to see me. We did not talk,
but we seemed to communicate (i.e.,
I knew she had had a nightmare, she
welcomed me, etc.). After standing with
her (she had arisen when I appeared)
for a brief period of time, we walked
back to her bedroom where I observed
her body asleep on the bed - she was
lying on her right side and seemingly
tranquil. The sister with whom I had
been communicating observed that it
was probably time for me to go and I
agreed. Almost simultaneously with this
understanding I began to rouse and to
realize I was back in the lab."
|
I was unable to contact
the sister before Miss Z went home for a visit
a few weeks later, so this experience cannot
be considered as to possible parapsychological
aspects. On this visit home, Miss Z discussed
the incident with her sister, and reported that
the latter vaguely recalled having a dream about
Miss Z visiting her at about the proper time,
but unfortunately no written records were made.
As for the experience per se, this sort of OOB
experience in which she seemed to travel a great
distance was unusual for Miss Z.
After reporting the
experience described above, Miss Z went back
to sleep, had a couple more Stage 1 dreams during
the night, and was awakened by me at 6.50 A.M.
so that she could get to work.
On reporting to the
laboratory on the fourth night, Miss Z seemed
to be determined to have the right kind of OOB
experience. Although I had indicated complete
satisfaction with her performance so far, she
was angry at herself because she had not been
able to float up and read the target number.
Miss Z went quickly
to sleep, entering Stages 3 and 4 less than
fifteen minutes after going to bed. The night
was uneventful for the most part - there were
several Stage 1 dream periods in the first two-thirds
of the night, as would be expected for any normal
subject. After four and a half hours of sleep,
she had a Stage 1 dream period with REMs which
lasted for half an hour. The EEG was technically
rather poor on this night, being obscured with
a great deal of sixty cycle artifact and requiring
rather heavy high frequency filtering to make
it clear, so the EEG findings should be taken
with the realization that they are subject to
more error than usual. Miss Z's Stage 1 dream
terminated with several minutes of intermittent
body movements and EEG artifact. Then (at 5:50
A.M.) the occipital channel showed an enlarged,
slow wave artifact, the REM channel showed no
REMs, and the record looked like a Stage I tracing;
however, I could not be sure due to the considerations
mentioned above. At 5:57 A.M. the slow wave
artifact was lessened and the record looked
somewhat like Stage 1 with REMs, but I could
not be sure whether this was a waking or a Stage
I record. This lasted until 6:04 A.M., at which
time Miss Z awoke and called out that the target
number was 25132. This was
correct (with the digits in correct order),
but I did not say anything to her at this point;
I merely indicated that I had written the number
down on the record. I then told her she could
go back to sleep, but twenty minutes later I
awakened her so that she could get ready to
go to work. At this time, she described her
experience as follows:
"I woke up;
it was stifling in the room. Awake for
about five minutes. I kept waking up
and drifting off, having floating feelings
over and over. I needed to go higher
because the number was lying down. Between
5:50 and 6:00 A.M. that did it. ...
I wanted to go read the number in the
next room, but I couldn't leave the
room, open the door, or float through
the door. . .. I couldn't turn off the
air conditioner! "
|
It should be mentioned
that Miss Z had expected me to prop the target
number up against the wall on the shelf; actually,
I had laid it flat on the shelf, which she correctly
perceived. Also, I had put a second number on
a shelf in the equipment room, but she reported
she could not get into this room to see the
number. Neither could she turn off the air conditioner,
and she complained - that although it had been
stifling, it was too cold in the room by that
time.
Since Miss Z's correctly
calling a five-digit number (P = 10^-5
[i.e., odds of 1 in 100,000]) was the first
strong evidence that her OOB experiences contained
a parapsychological element, I inspected the
laboratory carefully the next day to see if
there was any way in which this number
[Note:
I was assisted in this by
Dr. Arthur Hastings,
whom I wish to thank.] could have been
read by non parapsychological means. As a first
alternative to an explanation involving extrasensory
perception, we decided that "sophisticated"
cheating by Miss Z was not impossible. She might
have concealed mirrors and reaching rods in
her pajamas and used these during the period
when the EEG was difficult to classify (due
to movement artifacts) to read the number. While
this is possible, I personally doubt that it
occurred. The second alternative is that she
might have seen the number reflected in the
surface of the case of the clock which was mounted
on the wall above it. This was the only reflecting
surface in the room placed in such a way that
this might have been possible. Both Dr. Hastings
and I spent some time in the dimly lit room
to dark-adapt our eyes, and tried to read a
number from the subject's position on the bed,
as reflected on the surface of the clock. As
the room was dimly lit and the surface of the
clock was black plastic, we could not see anything
of the number. However, when we shone a flashlight
directly on the number (increasing its brightness
by a factor somewhere between several hundred
and several thousand) we could just make out
what the number was in the much brighter reflection.
Thus, although it seems unlikely, one could
argue that the number constituted a "subliminal
stimulus" in its reflection off the clock
surface. Therefore, Miss Z's reading of the
target number cannot be considered as providing
conclusive evidence for a parapsychological
effect.
After calling out
the number, Miss Z again returned to sleep and
spent approximately twenty minutes in a stage
where the EEG was again quite difficult to classify.
It was a generally low voltage, flattened record
which looked rather like a poorly developed
Stage 1 record. However, there were no REMs
to speak of, and there was only a small amount
of alphoid activity. Upon awaking, she reported
that she had had a number of floating sensations
during this time.
In the course of
four nights in the laboratory, Miss Z reported
three clear-cut incidents of "floating" and
two instances of feeling completely out of her
body. The floating incidents, according to her
accounts, were all characterized by the feeling
that she was starting to rise up above her body,
but only slightly, and then
[Note:
The set-up of the room was changed slightly
in preparation for a fifth laboratory night,
and the shelf was extended so that no reflection
could be seen off the clock from the subject's
position in bed. However, personal difficulties
forced Miss Z to return to her family's home
in Southern California before a fifth laboratory
night could be scheduled] being back
in her body, usually waking in the process.
The "nightmare" during her second laboratory
night is not clearly classifiable as an OOB
experience.
Only the final night
in the laboratory produced a report of an OOB
experience giving fair evidence of parapsychological
concomitants (her reading of the target number),
but as this evidence is not conclusive, the
remainder of this discussion will focus on the
subjective experience of being out of the body,
and on the concomitant psychophysiological states.
It is difficult to
state conclusively what kind of EEG pattern
accompanied the floating experiences and full
OOB experience because we must depend on Miss
Z's retrospective report for the approximate
times when they occurred. In connection with
most of these experiences, she reported waking
up briefly several times during their course;
thus, one would expect whatever pattern accompanied
them to be mixed with transitory waking patterns,
as well as with the body movement artifacts
which generally accompany waking from sleep.
My general impression of the EEG correlates
of Miss Z's floating and OOB experiences is
that they occurred during a rather poorly developed
Stage 1 pattern which was dominated by alphoid
activity and often mixed with transitory periods
of
wakefulness. This alphoid activity was always
one to one and a half cycles per second slower
than her normal alpha rhythm. No REMs seemed
to accompany these experiences and, judging
from the one night when the
plethysmograph was working satisfactorily
and the two nights when the skin resistance
channel was working satisfactorily, there are
no marked autonomic alterations concomitant
with the experiences; that is, heart rate stays
at a normal, steady rate, and there is no pronounced
change in either BSR or spontaneous GSR activity.
Further, it can be
stated with some certainty that Miss Z's OOBs
experiences do not occur in a normal state of
Stage 1 dreaming. She showed normal, well developed
Stage 1 EEG and REM patterns, but she did not
report OOB experiences in conjunction with these
patterns unless they changed into the alphoid
pattern, without accompanying REMs.
Figure 1
shows a typical example of Miss Z's waking EEG
pattern and an example of Stage 1 dreaming with
REMs.

Figure 2 shows a sample of
Stage 2 sleep with an example of the prominent
alphoid pattern she showed in conjunction with
her OOB experiences; this particular example
is taken from her second laboratory night when
she reported seeing the time.

Considering, then,
that we have a fairly good correlation between
Miss Z's reported OOB experiences and a relatively
distinct neurophysiological pattern, how would
we describe her physiological state? Here we
run into considerable difficulty. The mixture
of Stage 1 and pronounced alphoid activity,
along with no REMs or cardiovascular or skin
resistance changes, has not been described before,
to my knowledge, in the sleep literature.*
The particular [Note:
* Alphoid activity is usually mentioned as a
component of Stage 1 sleep, but there are no
quantitative standards available as to how much
alphoid activity is typical. Thus I am depending
upon personal experience with dozens of sleep
records in forming my impression that Miss Z's
alphoid activity was exceptionally prominent
during her OOB experiences.] pattern
cannot be unequivocally classified as a waking
pattern, nor can it be unequivocally classified
as any of the known stages of sleep. Nor is
it a typical Stage 1 drowsy pattern by any means,
because of the pronounced alphoid activity.
Dr. William Dement, one of the world's leading
authorities on sleep research, kindly looked
at these patterns, and agreed with me that they
could not very well be classified into any of
the known sleep stages, nor could they even
be classified unambiguously as waking or drowsy
patterns.
From some points
of view, we could say that Miss Z was in a hypnagogic
state at the time of her OOB experiences, or
in a transitional state between sleeping and
waking; but simply putting a familiar label
on the state tells us nothing about its nature.
Furthermore, the presence of so much alphoid
activity is not typical of hypnagogic states.
However, some interesting literature is starting
to come out of Japanese laboratories on the
slowing of the alpha rhythm during
Zen meditation (35,
38,
39).
The significance
of alphoid activity is difficult to assess.
In ordinary subjects, alpha frequency tends
to decrease with advancing age (34,
41),
but this is a long-term decline rather than
a transient change. Acute alcoholic intoxication
transiently lowers EEG alpha frequency (13,
22,
54),
as does acute
anoxia and
hypoglycemia (23).
For normal subjects not subjected to such drastic
treatments, however, I can find no reports of
such transient alpha slowing or its possible
significance.
One other unusual
experimental treatment has been reported to
result in slowed alpha activity, viz.,
sensory isolation. Heron (33)
presents graphs which show a shift from alpha
activity predominating at 10 cps for three normal
subjects to 9 cps for two of them and 8 cps
for one of them at the end of ninety-six hours
of isolation. Even more drastic shifts to alphoid
activity are reported by Zubek, Welch, and Saunders
(65)
for a longer isolation period. Heron also mentions
that some subjects felt as if another body were
lying beside them, sometimes overlapping with
their physical body, although it is not clear
from his report whether these were the same
subjects who showed alpha slowing. In any case,
it would be interesting to follow up on these
findings. This is a transient alpha slowing
iii otherwise normal subjects, but further equating
of the states of Zen meditation or sensory isolation
with Miss Z's state during her OOB experiences
would be quite speculative at this time.5
There is one sleep
study (42)
in which considerable alphoid activity was reported
in the sleep records as a result of chlorpromazine
administration.
Chlorpromazine is a fairly commonly used
tranquilizer known under the trade name of Thorazine.
A friend indicated that Miss Z might have been
taking
trifluoperazine (Stelazine) at the time
of the study. Neither Miss Z herself, her roommate,
nor her boyfriend recall that she was taking
this at the time of the study, but it remains
a possibility. There have been no studies of
the effect of this drug on the sleep EEG, but
the possibility should be borne in mind that
Miss Z might have been taking this medication,
and that it might have contributed to the alphoid
activity in her patterns. But even if this were
true, it would not account for the findings,
as the fact remains that her OOB experiences
were associated with this unique pattern, which
was quite distinguishable from the normal sleep
stage patterns. Indeed, one might speculate
that drugs which tend to slow alpha frequency
might promote OOB experiences, and this could
be a possibly fruitful line of experimental
inquiry.
It is important to
note that Miss Z's psychophysiological state
during the OOB experiences was not at all what
one would predict from reading various occult
works on OOB experiences or "astral
projections" (21,
26,
44,
46),
or from accounts of OOB experiences reported
in conjunction with serious illnesses or accidents
(10,
11,
12,
43).
These works lead one to expect that a "death-like
trance" accompanies OOB experiences, in
which respiration and heart beat would be markedly
slowed, temperature might fall considerably,
and in which one would probably see the sort
of brain waves (high voltage slow waves) characteristic
of
coma (55).
Miss Z did not seem to be in a "death-like trance."
When it was measured, her heart rate was normal
and steady, there was no unusual autonomic activity,
and the Stage 1 and alphoid activity in the
EEG was not what one associates with coma.
Closer reading of
some of the techniques described in the occult
literature for producing OOB experiences (e.g.,
9,
26, 27,
28,
44,
46),
however, suggests that there may be several
distinct sorts of
[Note: I hope to do some work
in the near future with another woman who claims
that she can have O0B experiences at will. She
has participated in a colleague's experiment
on operant control of EEG alpha rhythm and is
reported to he very good at enhancing this rhythm.]
experiences produced by the variety of
techniques presented. Some of these techniques
are
dream-control techniques, in which the dreamer
must recognize that he is dreaming and then
convert the dream into an OOB experience. Others
are what we might call hypnagogic experiences,
for they involve fixedly holding the idea of
having an OOB experience in mind while allowing
oneself to drift into a hypnagogic or sleep
state. Still other techniques seem to involve
the creation of a "trance"
state, but nothing further will be said about
this third possibility here because writers
use the term "trance" in very ambiguous ways,
as will be discussed elsewhere (60).
Miss Z's experiences may have been cases of
hypnagogic phenomena following brief awakenings
during the night, or of a Stage 1 dream being
converted into an OOB experience. Which alternative
is true is not clear from the exploratory work
of this study.
The tentativeness
of the correlations reported here between OOB
experiences and brain wave states should be
noted. The EEG is a complex phenomenon that
varies in terms of frequency, regularity, waveshape,
spatial distribution over the brain, and interareal
phase relationships. The analyses reported in
this paper were confined to visual inspection:
adequate investigation of the possible EEG correlates
of OOB experiences will have to use the most
sophisticated recording and electronic analysis
techniques, as well as running the selected
subjects through control conditions to see which
EEG correlates are unique to the OOB experience
and which appear under other circumstances as
well.
In summary, this
brief study found a fairly clear-cut correlation
between several of Miss Z's reported OOB experiences
and a physiological pattern characterized by
a flattened EEG with prominent alphoid activity,
no REM or skin resistance activity, and normal
heart rate. Much more work remains to be done
before we can begin to understand the psychophysiological
and parapsychological aspects of OOB experiences,
and it is hoped that the present study, insofar
as it has shown that these experiences can be
studied by the techniques of modern science,
will encourage other investigators to carry
out further experiments.
Charles
T. Tart, Ph.D., Editor,
TASTE Professor of Psychology,
Institute of Transpersonal Psychology
Professor Emeritus,
Psychology, University of California at Davis
Senior Research Fellow,
Institute of Noetic Sciences President,
Institute for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
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The End of Materialism:
How Evidence of the Paranormal
Is Bringing Science and
Spirit Together
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by Charles Tart
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Charles Tart presents over
fifty years of scientific
research conducted at the
nation's leading universities
that proves humans do have
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and abilities. The End of
Materialism presents an
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work marks the beginning
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Open Mind, Discriminating Mind: Reflections
on Human Possibilities
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by Charles Tart
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This wide-ranging book presents explorations
in areas Charles Tart, international
authority on consciousness and parapsychology,
believes are at the cutting edge of
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scientifically sound, but easily readable
and personally relevant. The book is
intended to expand our horizons of what
our possibilities are, as we spend too
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Topics include meditation, lucid dreaming,
how to use a psychic reading, possible
postmodern survival, dream yoga, altered
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Body Mind Spirit: Exploring the Parapsychology
of Spirituality
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by Charles Tart
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Addressing the split between practitioners
of science and those of spirituality,
Charles Tart presents the considerations
of well-known researchers and authors
such as William Roll, Ramakrishna Rao,
Michael Grosso, and Jeffrey Mishlove
on such subjects as God, life after
death, channeling, and other dimensions.
A ground-breaking work that may surprise
many readers.
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Living the Mindful Life
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by Charles Tart
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Being awake. Why is something that sounds
so simple the primary goal of so many
of the world's great wisdom traditions?
In this workshop-in-a-book, Charles
T. Tart shows why: the seeming simplicity
of the awakened state belies its transformative
effect on the lives of those who strive
for it. His easy-to-use exercises put
within everyone's reach the elusive
art of "waking up" to life in the glorious
present moment.
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Waking Up: Overcoming the Obstacles
to Human Potential
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by Charles Tart
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Charles Tart is internationally known
for research on transpersonal psychology
and parapsychology. Waking Up is based
on Gurdjieff's notion that most people
are automatons controlled by mechanical
habits of thought, perception and behavior.
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Learning to Use Extrasensory Perception
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by Charles Tart
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All attempts to test people's ESP abilities
overlook the fact that ESP is an undeveloped
function, so we have to learn how to
use it to begin with, not just see how
much ESP we can show. Psychologist Charles
T. Tart applied basic principles of
learning to this task to show how training
under conditions of immediate feedback
could enhance ESP ability. This highly
readable book, originally published
by the University of Chicago Press,
is the theory and a comprehensive study
suggesting the principles can work.
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Mind Science: Meditation Training for
Practical People [Kindle eBook]
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by Charles Tart
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Rich with lucid instructions and practical
insights, Mind Science dispels the metaphysical
haze that all too often surrounds the
subject of meditation. Based on a lively
workshop with fellow scientists, this
book shows how the pragmatic and scientifically-inclined
among us can bring mindfulness into
everyday life without religious baggage,
while clearly explaining its many spiritual
and health benefits. This concise yet
densely informative book includes many
question-and-answer exchanges between
students and teacher, clarifying many
of the puzzles and quandaries that meditation
practice presents to beginners.
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Transpersonal Psychologies: Perspectives
on the Mind from Seven Great Spiritual
Traditions
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by Charles Tart
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Transpersonal Psychologies is a milestone
in the development of psychotherapeutic
thought and practice that expertly translates
mystical traditions into the language
of science for a wide readership. Bringing
East and West together, these essays
provide and in-depth, psychological
view of spirituality and the paranormal
and an overview of our enduring search
for spiritual meaning. In fascinating
explorations of yoga, Buddhism, Sufism,
Gurdjieff, Christian mysticism, and
Western magic. Tart and his contributors
online a far-reaching new understanding
of spiritual traditions of who we are.
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Mind at Large: IEEE Symposia on the
Nature of Extrasensory Perception
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by Charles Tart, Harold E. Puthoff,
and Russell Targ
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Mind at Large documents a ground-breaking
advance in parapsychological research.
It presents the astonishing findings
of two symposia sponsored by the Institute
of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
(IEEE). This Studies in Consciousness
edition reprints that material in full,
and adds a 1982 paper by Professor Robert
Jahn, formerly dean of Princeton's engineering
school, and head of Princeton University
Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory
(PEAR). Together, these papers by the
pioneers in psychical research contain
strong and convincing scientific data
for the existence of psychic abilities.
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On Being Stoned: A Psychological Study
of Marijuana Intoxication
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by Charles Tart
|
This book by Charles Tart describes
the results of a landmark study of 150
experienced marijuana users. What do
they actually feel vs. propaganda about
marijuana? Effects on vision, hearing,
touch, social interaction, sexual sensations,
space and time perception, thinking
processes, spiritual experiences and
ESP are among the many discussed. This
is what can happen in the natural settings
people use marijuana in, not the artificial
conditions of the laboratory. This book
will become the standard work on the
subjective effects of marijuana.
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Altered States of Consciousness
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by Charles Tart
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Combining the best of the humanistic
and scientific traditions, this book
covers the effects of drugs, yoga, self-hypnosis,
mutual hypnosis, meditation, brainwave
feedback, and dream consciousness. As
the author states in his introduction:
"The 1980s have been thought of as a
conservative time. With respect to consciousness
exploration by individuals in point
of fact such exploration is still very
much with us. It will stay with us,
for better or worse, because of dissatisfaction
with the limitations of our culture."
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Psi: Scientific Studies of the Psychic
Realm
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by Charles Tart
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This is the first book-length report
of the thinking and studies of one of
America’s foremost investigators of
the psychic realm. Tart, an international
authority on human consciousness, has
studied such aspects of psi as telepathy,
out-of-the-body experiences, and the
human aura. Here he goes beyond the
usual arguments for or against the existence
of psi and instead discusses what we
know about it and its implications for
understanding our human and spiritual
nature.
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Bigger Questions?
The Psychic Matrix
(DVD)
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by Charles Tart and Amit Goswami
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How Do You Define Consciousness? What
are psychic powers? What is the soul?
Are we connected at the quantum level?
With the advent of quantum mechanics,
string and membrane theory, science
has reached a new level of understanding.
In The Psychic Matrix, you will meet
the top scientists studying these important
questions. These brilliant minds explain
how it is possible to have precognition,
telepathy, clairvoyance; and how science
has learned about potential human abilities
that defy space and time. The Psychic
Matrix explains the true nature of this
wonderful 'multiverse' and provides
cutting-edge understanding of our undeniable
connection to the cosmos, spirit and
each other.
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Bigger Questions?
The Nature
of Reality (DVD)
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by Charles Tart and Amit Goswami
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How Do You Define Reality? How many
other dimensions are there beyond the
four-dimensions of time and space? What
is consciousness? What is the soul?
The Nature of Reality - Features the
top scientists in the field of theoretical
physics, consciousness studies, parapsychology
and psychology. The Nature of Reality
takes you beyond 'What the Bleep?' and
asks even Bigger Questions about the
true nature of this wondrous multiverse
we live in and provides further cutting-edge
understanding of our undeniable connection
to the cosmos.
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Bigger Questions?
The Fusion of Science
and Spirit (DVD)
|
by Charles Tart and Amit Goswami
|
How Do You Define The Soul? Where does
the soul reside? Where does it go after
we die? What is consciousness? What
makes each of us unique yet connected
in unity? This DVD series goes beyond
"The Secret" to provide a deeper explanation
of the true nature of this wonderful
multiverse we live in and provides a
cutting-edge understanding of our mystical
connection to the cosmos, spirit and
ourselves. Join top experts as they
ponder The Fusion of Science and Spirit
and show that ancient mystics and native
peoples had knowledge of the interconnectedness
of all things.
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Cultivating Mindfulness (DVD)
|
by Charles Tart
|
The underlying cause of most social
and personal problems is lack of mindfulness.
Dr. Charles Tart discusses how difficult
it is to translate meditative awareness
to the problems of daily life. He describes
the training methods of G. I. Gurdjieff
as an alternative form of mindfulness
training intended to be used in the
midst of workaday activities. A Thinking
Allowed video, hosted by Jeffrey Mishlove.
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Waking Up (DVD)
|
by Charles Tart
|
Our normal waking state of consciousness
can be likened to being "asleep" in
comparison to other states of awareness
we might attain. In this intriguing
discussion, psychologist Charles Tart,
Ph.D., author of Altered States of Consciousness
and Waking Up, suggests that we can
begin to "wake up" by allowing our awareness
to become conscious of itself. This
can become a simple, yet powerful, discipline.
A Thinking Allowed video, hosted by
Jeffrey Mishlove.
|
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|
Understanding ESP (DVD)
|
by Charles Tart
|
One of America's foremost parapsychology
researchers, Charles Tart, Ph.D., discusses
his own research as he examines factors
that facilitate ESP scoring in the laboratory.
These range from feedback learning strategies
to methods for shielding the human body
from random electromagnetic and geomagnetic
influences. Dr. Tart is the author of
Psi: Studies in the Scientific Realm
and Learning to Use Extrasensory Perception.
A Thinking Allowed video, hosted by
Jeffrey Mishlove.
|
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|
Science and Spiritual Traditions (DVD)
|
by Charles Tart
|
Western science and traditional spiritual
practice are both dedicated to the search
for truth. Charles Tart, Ph.D., professor
of psychology at the University of California
at Davis and author of Transpersonal
Psychologies, suggests that in the future
we may be able to specify which types
of individuals are likely to benefit
most from particular spiritual disciplines.
A Thinking Allowed video, hosted by
Jeffrey Mishlove.
|
|
|
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|
Self-Observation (DVD)
|
by Charles Tart
|
Countless factors can mitigate against
self-observation in Western society.
Charles Tart, Ph.D., noted psychologist
and author of Waking Up, suggests we
begin by learning to focus on seemingly
trivial details such as bodily sensations.
Through repeated and diligent practice,
he says, the process of self-observation
leads us to a larger view of ourselves
and our potential. A Thinking Allowed
video, hosted by Jeffrey Mishlove.
|
|
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|
Transpersonal Conversations (DVD)
|
by Charles Tart
|
"This series is a unique and valuable
contribution to Transpersonal Psychology."
- Janice Holden, Current President,
International Association for Near-Death
Studies. "These in-depth presentations
are engaging, personal and reveal the
manifold implications of a transpersonal
perspective. A truly unique collection!"
- Miles A. Vich, Former Editor, Journal
of Transpersonal Psychology, 1975-1999
|
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|
Transpersonal Conversations: 6-DVD Special
Edition Set! [DVD]
|
by Charles Tart, Ralph Metzner, Stanislav
Grof, Francis Vaughan et al.
|
Stanislav Grof is one of the original
founders of transpersonal psychology
and is the founding president of the
International Transpersonal Association.
He is one of the world’s first LSD pioneers
and author of dozens of books on non-ordinary
states of consciousness. Ralph Metzner
is one of the classic figures in the
history of modern consciousness research
and transpersonal psychology. As a pioneer
of consciousness research he co-wrote
The Psychedelic Experience (with Leary
and Alpert) and was editor of The Psychedelic
Review. He served as the Academic Dean
at the California Institute of Integral
Studies for more than ten years and
is still a Professor there, teaching
courses on "Altered States of Consciousness"
and "Developing Ecological Consciousness."
Frances Vaughan is author and editor
of many books on transpersonal psychology
and therapy. She has served as the President
of the Association for Transpersonal
Psychology, President of the Association
for Humanistic Psychology and on the
Board of Editors of the Journal of Transpersonal
Psychology. She has been a professor
of psychology at several institutions
and has maintained a private practice
in transpersonal psychotherapy for more
than 30 years.
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|
Something Unknown Is Doing We Don't
Know What [DVD]
|
by Dean Radin, Gary Schwartz and Charles
Tart
|
Awards: Berlin Documentary Festival-Official
Selection, Tucson Arizona Film Festival-Jury
Award, Los Angeles Feel Good Film Festival
- Official Selection, Spirit Quest Film
Festival-Official Selection, Santa Fe
Film Festival - Official Selection Interest
in psychic phenomena has always been
evident. But what does science have
to say about these mysterious matters?
Can science explain them? Is there evidence
to prove them? Renee Scheltema explores
this world of parapsychology in her
documentary, Something Unknown... Is
Doing I Don t Know What. She takes the
viewer on a fascinating spiritual journey
into the science behind psychic phenomena,
where the boundary between 'real' ability
and fraud is tested. Something Unknown
explores these five scientifically 'accepted'
areas of parapsychology: Telepathy refers
to mind-reading or mind-to-mind communication.
It literally means "distant feeling".
Clairvoyance the psychic ability to
perceive remote places, objects or people.
A scientific term for clairvoyance is
'Remote Viewing'. Precognition an alleged
psychic ability to predict the future.
It sometimes comes as a vision, a mental
flash or a dream. Psychokinesis, 'PK'
for short, is the ability to move objects
with the power of the mind only. Psychic
Healing a spiritual practice that may
afford gradual relief from pain or sickness,
and sometimes brings about sudden 'miracle
cures'. Top scientists, parapsychologists,
psychologists, doctors, physicists,
healers, and explorers in the field
of research who appear include Dean
Radin of IONS, Prof. Gary Schwartz,
Larry Dossey, Charles Tart, Rupert Sheldrake,
Edgar Mitchell, and Eric Pearl.
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Psychoactive Sacramentals: Essays on
Entheogens and Religion (The CSP Entheogen
Project Series, 3)
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by Charles Tart, Stanislav Grof, Huston
Smith, Albert Hofmann, et al
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Said to help occasion direct spiritual
experience, entheogens include such
psychoactives as ayahausca, the peyote
used by the Native American Church,
and psilocybin mushrooms. What place
might psychoactive sacramentals have
in contemporary spiritual practices?
Can the careful use of entheogens aid
in spiritual development? What cautions
ought to be considered? 25 new essays
from leaders in religion, mental health,
and allied fields address these questions.
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Earth Ascending: An Illustrated Treatise
on the Law Governing Whole Systems
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by Jose Arguelles and Charles Tart
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Earth Ascending is a workbook for human
and planetary survival. This collection
of fifty holonomic maps and comprehensive
text is based on a resonant field paradigm
which transcends the Newtonian materialistic
model. Each individual map is a work
of art unto itself, encapsulating a
world of insight and consciousness,
and bridging the gap to an integrated,
galactic worldview. In 1978, Buckminster
Fuller said that it would be curtains
for humanity if a design revolution
were not completed within ten years.
It is now ten years later, and as a
convincing response to this challenge,
Earth Ascending postulates a planetary
design which envisions the evolving
field of Earth in relation to the galactic
whole. Earth Ascending demands a stretch
of consciousness. Our fall from spiritual
realization and our degradation of the
environment are the result of a blind
acceptance of one-dimensionality, and
a paralyzed, complacent acceptance of
impending doom. Only a rebirth into
the numinous world of multidimensional
interface will give us the vision to
create a new future. Earth Ascending
offers this vision.
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Out-of-Body Experiences: How to Have
Them and What to Expect
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by Robert Peterson and Charles Tart
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Imagine the wonder of leaving your body
to travel to places and realms you have
only dreamed of. Out of Body Experiences
is the book to teach you how to leave
your body and what to expect when you
do it. A simple step-by-step manual
and "flight guide" the author talks
not only about his own experiences,
but what you may encounter when you
leave the body. For the first time,
out-of-body experiences are accessible
to anyone who cares to try.
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Journeys Out of the Body
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by Robert Monroe and Charles Tart
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In 1958, Robert Monroe, a Virginia businessman,
began to have experiences that drastically
altered his life. Unpredictably, and
without his willing it, Monroe found
himself leaving his physical body to
travel, via a "second body," to locales
far removed from the physical and spiritual
realities of his life. He was inhabiting
a place unbounded by time or death.
The author tells of his initial resistance
to these "out of body" experiences,
which soon began to appear with alarming
frequency. As time went by, however,
his fears were alleviated by his discovery
of a long history of these experiences
in the literature of the East, as well
as a surprisingly large "underground"
in this country, made up of people who
had shared Monroe's experiences. This
book is the gripping personal account
of Monroe's courageous adventure into
the unknown. This fully-documented,
first-hand story challenges the reader
to explore the limits of our physical
universe-and re-think his ideas of life
and death. For the adventurous, the
author also provides instructions on
how to initiate the out-of-body experience.
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Adventures Beyond the Body: How to Experience
Out-of-Body Travel
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by William Buhlman
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William Buhlman has trained out-of-body
travelers in his workshop for more than
a decade, teaching people how to project
their consciousness outside the limits
of their physical bodies and to explore
dimensions and worlds beyond everyday
life. Now he vividly recounts how own
adventures in the parallel universe
described in the new-physics theories
of Stephen Hawkins, Paul Davies, and
Fred Alan Wolf and presents his step-by-step
guide to astral travel including exercises,
tips, techniques, and answers to your
every question about out-of-body experiences.
And discover surprising truths about
reality, past lives, the soul, and life
after death. Astral travel, Buhlman
reveals, not only can expand your
consciousness, it
can help verify the existence of the
soul, teach you about past lives, and
enhance your daily life. Find out in
this compelling handbook for everyone
who wants to venture beyond the body
and take the ultimate trip.
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