at' Till to@ 0 By Joan Kron Parapsychologists are interested in out-of- body experience because it'has, implications for survival after death On this past Halloween morning- function outside the body before death works for Monroe, and an ordained after it dark and stormy night-4 saw might be able to function [outsidel the minister. In addition, there were two the past, present, and future at the body after death." young men-a hematologist from Wash- Waynesboro-Afton Holiday Inn, near Nowonder people are beating a.pathto ington, D.C., and a professor of psy- Charlottesville, Virginia. Robert Monroe's door in Afton, Virginia. chological counseling-who were re- A cow had somehow strayed onto U.S.. His M-5000 training program is a.pain- ferred by Illinois psychiatrist Elisabeth Highway 250 and was trotting along, less, nontraumatic course in OBE using KUbler-Ross, the cult figure of the ?nnerving motorists; in the inn's park-' recorded speech and sound effects- death-and-dying 'movement and a Mon- ing lot, a flotilla of Corvettes was lined and it's almost ready to go national. roe booster. up for a convention of Corvette own- Some 600 pioneers have already tried "Elisabeth Kilbler-Ross got out [of ers; and in three adjoining room& on it, and Monroe has a branch pro- her body] both times she took the pro- the upper level, thirteen men and wom- gram in San Francisco. When I ar- gram," said one of the Monroe trainers. en, including me, were lying in bed ranged to join one of the weekend ses- We were not so lucky. In the course wearing earphones, trying -to achieve an sions, insiders warned me I'd be spend- of the three-day program no one claimed out-of-body experience-a phenomenon ing a lot of time in bed, And Monroe to have achieved liftoff. We had lain in which one feels one's consciousness warned me I couldn't expect to have an on our adjoining beds through three is located outside the physical body. OBE on the first weekend. But I had 45-minute tapes on Friday evening, Out-of-body experience (OBE) could high hopes for instant success. After nine 45-minute tapes on Saturday, and be the next body-control fad, a rival all, I am an American. had about six to go on Sunday-and for fasting, yoga, TM, biofeedback, The $175 weekend (plus meals and still nothing. etc. But instead of being a means to motel room) did not attract the us- The tapes evolved over a ten-year control the body, OBE lets you escape ual parapsychology crowd, although period, In 1973 Monroe took them- the body. It's supposed to be a pleasant there were some in the group who by invitation-to the Esalen Institute trip. And if you're looking for a mean. knew their way around a sdance table. in Carmel for a tryout. In the M-5000 ingful experience, it couldn't be more There were three college students from train ing-program jargon the tapes play so, for it poses questions about exis. Buffalo, a chiropractor from South, Da- combinations of sounds (using a pat- tence and nonexistence. kota, a woman who had founded the ented sleep-inducing method) with Parapsychologists are interested in Louisiana Society for Psychical Re- delta-theta pulsing, plus a binaural beat the OBE for two reasons, says Univer. search, another who had recently lost to help the left and right brain hemi- sity of California parapsychologist John her husband (and whose daughter is spheres get in sync. The voice-over in- Palmer. One, because "the OBE might' writing a book on ESP in dogs), an ac- struction-some barely audible-is a be a state particularly conducive to ESP countant whose hobby is religion and step-by-step buildup with each tape [extrasensory perception]" and two, be, philosophy and who believes he's been guiding you from relaxation to visual. cause "it would _Jzedl to Jeeper relaxation to ft@@cW Va tl ht? a r'a h of survival after dniques for perceiv. GS NOW YORKIYEAR-END Issue IflusPow by UNM 00W Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788ROO1700210026-4 olie astral flight, claims Monroe, he visited the home ol! a skeptical, woman friend and gave her an astral pinch..'." ing and controlling nonphysical energy "But the best way to have an OBE," with a wink, "I don't think they're put- and refocusing consciousness away from says University of California psychol- ting everything that happens in it." physical reality. But to me it sounded o gy professor Dr, Charles Tart, "is to The 61-year-old Monroe seems to l ike ocean waves with a mesmerizing al most die." need to legitimize his OBE!s to prove voice telling me, "Now you will conduct Whether it's the best way for you to that they're more than hallucinations your exercise in resonant breathing as I 'have one or not, it guarantees quick or altered states of consciousness, so guide you.... You will know. you have attention from doctors of varying spe- he's building an institute to go with reached the resonant point when you cialties who -will want to debrie f you them, complete with a "respectable" feel an intensive vibration and hear a for,their forthcoming books. board of advisers (Kilbler-Ross is one), roaring or hissing sound in, your head And if you have OBE's often enough sci-fi jar gon, and a hypothesis that ESP or expert Ience patterns of light. . . ." or can achieve them at will, you may and OB E's are related to some kind of I And so it goes, hypnotically and some. be invited to Stanford Research Insti- 'more Intelligent life on other planets. what pretentiouslyi from C-One (your tute in California, the Psychical Re. His explanation reads like a B-movie conscious physical waking state), to Fo. search Institute in Durham, North Car- script. And it's expectable from a man cus Ten (body asleep, mind awake), to olina, the American Society for Psychi- who scripted a few episodes of The' Focus Twelve (state of expanded non. cal Research in Now York City, or the Shadow when he was a New York physical awareness), to exercises in re- Clarke Institute in Toronto, Canada- writer, producer, and programmer in mote viewing of, a six-digit number (no where you will be hooked up to brain. radio's early days. Today Monroe sells one guessed it right), to psych 'okinesis wave machiiies and tested on all sorts the out-of-body trip the way Don Wil- (trying to make a cotton ball rise-it of neurological equipment to help sci. son sold Jell-O. "The main thing is didn't), to your energy bar tool (sort of ence fathom the enigma of the ORE. how do you feel about the Ten state? a mental chinning bar), to Focus Fifteen The big question is, when it's not Can you feel the difference be. (the state where time does not exist or caused by body-chemistry alteration,, tween the Ten state and the Twelve is unimportant), to, it is hoped, the dis. fever, or trauma to the brain, what is state? You'll get to the 'I know' sys- crete out-of-body state. the OBE state's neurophysiology? Sci. tem-'I know I am something, other The woman from Louisiana kept entists are, fairly sure about what it's than physical matter.' That's the begin- failing aslee p and someone 'else found 'not. It's not a dream state; it's not a ning stage. You don't need proof for himself swal lowing a lot. "They were sleep state. The only consistent finding that.... You must overcome the bai- resisting," we were told. Some people emerging from studies; says John Palm. rier of nonknowing. . . . You can't in other sessions dropped out because er, "is a reduction of eye-movement crash-@rogram out of your body, : . . "they might not be able to take the activity during OBE's." You must log a number of exercises. assault on their value structure." I had Gifted OBEers are almost as rare as Our failure rate is zero [if you prac- a brief moment when I felt I was flying certifiable ghosts-the most notorious tice]. Ten is simplistic. Twelve is the over New York, but maybe that was ones around are New York artist Ingo gateway. I won't begin to tell you the what scientists call the "halo" effect- Swann, Maine psychic Alex Tanous, things you can do with it." trying to please the teacher-except I parapsychologist Stuart "Blue" Harary, Monroe's brochure claims his courses didn't tell my teacher. who works at Brooklyn's Maimonides are good for almost anything: Heal- (.why do I pursue this?" asked the Medical Center. and M-5000 entre. ing. Re-energizing yourself, Pain reduc- physician from Washington, rhetorical. preneur Robert Monroe. They all claim tion.Dehabituation from smoking,drugs, ly, in ont of our walks around the deck that they can travel and/or project their and overeating; concentration and between tapes. "Because I trust Kiibler. consciousnesses, or "doubles," as they're decision-making techniques; accelerated Ross," he answered himself. "She says called, to other locales. One of the data-learning; exploration and contact it happens, so I believe it happens," aims of Monroe's program is to turn with other energy systems. "So have a I know it happens. I have had many up gifted OBEers for his eight-per. good time, folks, up there in Twelve," OBE's myself, ypars ago in the dentist's son "explorer group." "We're really says Monroe. "When you get into chair when nitrous oxide (laughing gas) paying Monroe to be his guinea pigs, Twelve, you're on the fringe of space was commonly used for anesthesia. On aren't we?" said the Louisiana woman time." And "Thank you," joked our those occasions, I relished the sensa. in a flash of enlightenment. leader, Nancy, his stepdaughter, "for. tion of floating out of my body up to Monroe is the author of journeys Out flying Monroe-via." the ceiling, looking down on myself. It of the Body, which chronicles his experi- Though "flying" out of the body may wasn't like dreaming, because I felt ments with inhaling glue fumes, fol. be an intriguing diversion in itself, a fully aware, present. I could even talk lowed soon after by his first spontaneous prime concern of the OBE buffs is its to my doctor. There was a dizzy Fan- OBE at age 43, and since then his con- relevance to life after death. tasia-like delirium about it that made tinuously recurring OBE's. On one Life-after-death (also called sur. me feel omnipotent. The only thing I "astral flight," Monroe claims. he visited vival) research isn't new, It started in disliked about those levitations was the home of a skeptical woman friend the nineteenth century and got a t re- the smell of the gas. and gave her an astral pinch. The result- mendous boost in the late 1940s when For years, I felt unique for having ing black-and-blue mark is proof, say be. pros pector James Kidd bequeathed had those experiences. But now I've lievers, of his dual existence in the nearl y $300.000 to anyone who could learned that untold thousands of ordi.'. OBE state. Monroe claims he can now Prove that the soul survives death. In nary Americans have had OBE's. Thby "fly" in tandem with his wife and that, 1972, after the "Great Soul Trial," can be triggered by therapeutic drugs, two of his "explorers," a husband and Kidd's money was finally divided be- marijuana, LSD, anesthesia, hypnosis, wife who live miles apart, visit each tween the American Society for Psyqhi- meditation, sensoryAlpp#e9bA,FwreReleW1se 2WOOP/dOryChfglRDPB"&78&FRORds'E&Ggl~ASBF4 and the Psy- treme stress. keeping a diary, 'but,",, says Monroe chical Research Foundation (PRF) in Approved For Release 2003/09/10 CIA-RDP96-00788ROO1700210026-4 I :UL k .- U110, Both organizations used the monci lo test the separate existence of the ODE- 2:@j er's "double." It was hard to prove. Z r Meanwhile, ASPR research director 8- Dr. Karlis Osis, with some extra sup- @ort from Xerox inventor Chester Carl- son, also did a cross-cultural survey of os, deathbed visions as reported by doc- 1.4 .-M tors and nurses. According to Osis, many dying pa- tients insist they have glimpses of post- nuou Cn mortem existence, persons long dead, 0 has 4, &. >_ scenes of otherworldly beauty. Espe- I weD ov'1131, 11, e' cially common were apparitions of the patients' deceased mothers, spouses, M and offspring, whom Osis calls "take- 0 away figures," whose role was to take side. the dying patients to the other "The data,"says Osis, "are more con- C sistent with life after death than with Z death as total destruction, But it's not 41. >_ proven." Where the parapsychologist won't 30@@ Up rush to conclusions, psychiatrist Elis- 44 =1 abeth Kiibler-Ross doesn't fear to tread. "I'm convinced beyond a shadow U_ of a doubt that there is life after death." she said in a recent newspaper interview. Her encounter with the ma- of one of her de- at terialized persona Doornka ceased patients seems to be one of her FROM GERMANY, proofs, Her other "proofs" of life after A M04T POPULAR DRINK'16i death are the out-of-body experiences Y,Hg, CO, 1"Quu of dying patients. Wod knows I'd like to believe in life after death. Like most survivors, I Thank yqu, have yearned to be, even dreamed of rf being, united with my dead daughter. Rev. Norman Mick or Sometimes when I put the key in the lock of my apartment door, I feel she is hovering over me in the hall. After our heavenly new name. she died, it was comforting to imagine her being taken care of by all those What would you call a schizophrenic little who had predeceased her-my grand- Dortable package that's partly a sensitive father, my father, my friend's ion. FM/AM/PSB radio, partly a mini TV set? The theory of evolution notwith- You name it, you win it, we said, and standing, belief in "the other side" is we were hit with an avalanche of names almost a reflex action, Miracles are for our Model 3050. But one caught our eye. Gemineye. programmed into us from the begin- So, thanks, Reverend Norman Kuck. ning-through our religions, our my- We hope you enjoy your Gemineye as thology, and our fairy tales. "if you be- uch as we like the name lieve in fairies," says Peter Pan, "Tin- M 2 Could It have been ker Bell will live." And If you don't be. divi6e inspiration? JVE: lieve in fairies, Tinker Bell will die. V10 Following that line of reasoning, if you believe in life after death, you will find it-and if you don't, you won't. So we A, skeptics hunger for proof. surprise, then, that Dr. Ray- Ws no mond Moody's book, Life After Life, embellished with a foreword by Kijbler- ss, is a best-seller. There was a Ro favorable reaction from all religious VA nominations,'and sales of the book de 0 N went out of sight. CE01HO EYE Members of the thanatology commu- rsonal poilable nity (who study death), however, had rso fits. After working for years to con- JVC America 0d%%7,§AJ0i6JiTQGJ"026tI*t the psychology of ,,,,Inc.,, 58-7MURN a 41 -fro outside N.Y. $00-22, @.n. VC. E ro i of Con a, Ltd., Scarborough, Ont. death and dying was a worthy. sub- Approved Fqr Rqq4se 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-0078 '8ROO1700210026-4 ast because she heard them say she was dead doesn't 'mean she was dead. Maybe it was. a lousy diagnosis,' said Blacher .'. .." ject for scientific study, one of their as dying. Flying to San Francisco is not cination or a religious experience. We own members, Kobler-Ross (who was the same as San Francisco. Just because 'need to reassure patients they are not already getting flak from her colleagues the patient heard the doctor say she [crazy]." for her . stages-of-dying theory), was was dead doesn't mean she was dead. But apparently no one ever needs now steering thanatology into spiritual- . Maybe it was a lousy diagnosis." to reassure them again about dying. ist waters. "I admire Elisabeth tremen. Even Moody admits, "I certainly "People who have survived this expe- dously," said one colleague, "but I don't. think that a logical conclusion rience are no longer afraid to die," says don't believe in mi 'xing one's religious can be drawn that these are life-after- Moody. beliefs with science." "I have left in- death experiences," thereby contradict- Must you almost.die to conquer your structions," said another, "not to let ing his own book title and book jacket. fear of dying? that woman within a mile of my death- So why did Moody, a man the Ban- According to parapsychologist John bed," tam P.R. person says has "this integrity Palmer (in a paper entitled "Conscious- But most of the critical blasts are thing," call his book Life After Life? ness Localized in Space Outside the aimed at the 32-year-pid Moody, a psy- "I didn't pick the title," Moody told Body," published in Osteopathic Physi- chiatry resident, now on leave from the me. "But . . . I especially like it be- cian, April, 1974), "Many persons who University of Virginia to write a se- cause it doesn't say life after death." have had striking OBE's report that the quel to his best-seller, "As anecdotes; And why does his Bantam paper- experience convinced them of survival I'd give the book B-minus," says Uni- back bear the subhead "Actual case after death and eliminated their fear versity of California professor oi. histories that reveal there is life after of death. Whether or not this con- thanatolo gy and suicide expert Dr. death"? clusion is objectively valid, it does Edwin S hneidman, !'and as research, "It's hard to trust the copy on the suggest therapeutic possibilities for the I'd give it D-minus." covers of books," says Moody. Then he OBE.... [It] may help persons engaged Life After Life is based on interviews adds, "Just as it's impossible to infer in high-risk occupations ... where fear... with 50 people who came close to death there is survival after bodily death, may adversely affect ... performance. through accident, illness, or injury-as there is no way to assume that. there is (Itl,might also provide comfort to pa- well as some who were judged or pro-' not." tients in certain stages of terminal nounced clinically dead and were resus- The "clinical death" cases in his illness." citated. Nowhere in the book, however, book refer to people whose heartbeat Kilbler-Ross, who once'said she "ex- does Moody state exactly how many of and respiration had stopped, who had pected tb die fighting and not accept- his subjects were pronounced dead, or no blood pressure, and whom the phy- ing," is now an adviser to Robert Mon- bow many had a spiritualist orientation. sician had considered dead. "Cardiac or roe on his Star System program-an Moody says merely -that he himself has even respiratory standstill does not, OBE course for the terminally ill that never been interested in spiritualism however, automatically mean the onset has certain similarities to earlier stud- and'that many of his subjects were doc- of clinical death," it says in the 1976 ies using LSD for the terminally ill. tors and nurses, from which, presuma- Encyclopaedia Britannica section on "It's a program to help the dying get bly, we are to infer that they are totally death authored by Elisabeth Ktbler- a foothold on the other side," says Mon- objective about their experiences. . Ross. "The pronouncement of death is roe. "If there is a great beyond, there's In a recent lecture at Columbia- much more problematical and contro-, a place for out-o f-body. Given three Presbyterian Medical Center, Moody versial than most people realize," says months, we can easily train a person said that fifteen elements crop up again medical ethicist Dr. Robert Veatch. to achieve out-of-body experience and' and again in the experiences of his sub- "When a person says, 'I died for change his concept of death and estab- jects: "There was an alarming audi- three minutes and had this experi. lish a beachhead where he's going." . - tory sensation, like a swarm of bees- ence,' this person was not dead. He Encouraging the dying to believe in this is referred to as the'moment of or she transiently ceased respiration an afterlife isn't new. "I don't dis- death. Many people said they heard and heartbeat but not all brain func. courage a belief in life after death," the doctor pronounce them dead. Then tion. Key brain function had to be says Philadelphia hematologist Dr. 1. there was a feeling of being drawn there or the person couldn't come Lawrence Naiman, who works with leu- down a tunnel, valley, or sewer, then back." Even Moody concedes the "re. kemic children, "It's a strong element the sensation of looking at their body turn" to life of these people was "no providing comfort in dying children from outside of it, of floating on the physiological miracle . . . something and their families," The Monroe, pro- ceiling. They feel they can't get through was going on in those bodies in order gram doesn't discourage it either. to their doctors and nurses. They often for them to be resuscitated." But what During the M-5000 weekend, the lead. feel @ someone who has died before accounts for the out-of-body visions of er casually mentioned that "one woman them is there to meet them. They have these near-death experiences? As Moody took the course to try to reach her son flashes of their life or a panoramic re- ' admits in Life After Life, they might who had died." My pulse quickened. - view of it-in 3-D, all at once, not se be attributed to drugs, isolation, or (I have never tried to communicate with quentially. And they see a being of , cerebral anoxia. When oxygen levels my daughter. I do have, a friend who light, a loving,' worm, accepting being are tampered with, you can get all prearranged all sorts of signals with her that most of them called 'he' or Christ sorts of subjective visions and dissoci- husband when he was dying, but after or the Supreme Being or the angel." ative effects like OBE's. his death she never received a message "It's fascinating as near-death experi. But please don't call it hallucination, or sign.) The next day I asked non- ence," said Boston psychiatrist Richard as if comparing these patients t6 psy- chalantly if that woman had. ever Blacher. "The trouble lies in the subtle -chotics. Many of these people, says reached her dead son. A lot of people eitrapolation that t 1*Q r t7 1414fdMlihWBBM6)17c94ZlWa~44ieved that some- " curred after dying 8 n, is d o h that t heir experience was a hallu- Not during the train- one had asked. Approved;Fbir Release-10,031.09/1.0 -, CIA-RDP967Q078F1_RQ0J Z00210,1126-4,__ Just a two- hour drive from the CktyThe there's a small Ultimate masterplece of a hotel Ir T where you can get.lostrudeaway with that special someone be alone far away from the crowd. Stroll together along sun-washed beaches, Ride for miles over wind-sw'ept dunes. Relax In the Spa; swim In the pool. Unwind. Discover each other anew. There are Intimate candleilt dinners. Dancing Into the nitei Apertifs and sharing dreams beside a crackling fire, Theservice Is truly gracious, discreet so as not to intrude. The place posh and secluded. 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Similarly, the ' have been a lowered level of oxy gen griever is drawn to reunion like the to the brain. And 47 percent of t hose moth to the flame. Many suicides are who believed death imminent had Pan- reunion-bound. So I felt ambivalent oramic memories. Although much the about this possibility-attracted and at same symp toms arefound in deperson- the same time guilty for not wanting to alization b rought on by marijuana in- leave life yet. Still, I was curious to toxication, says Noyes, the revival-of- talk to that woman. As it turned out, memories component appears to be she had never actually "been able to more closely associated with life-threat- contact" her son. However, since she ening circumstances, and bears a strik- had taken the Monroe course she had 'ing resemblance to A typical grief had a dream in which her son'told her reaction, where memories of deceased not to. worry about him-he was not persons, resembling. lifelike presences, alone. are reported during the acute stages and Whether or not OBE can help sur- represent a bereaved person's clinging vivors, do we need an OBE rehearsal to and at the same time severing ties for dying? A paper by University of with the lost loved one. It could also Iowa psychiatrist Russell Noyep Jr. and explain Osis's "take-away figure." clinical psychologist Roy Kletti entitled What about the tunnel Moody's people "Depersonalization in the Face of Life- see? "I've heard of experiences like Threatening Danger: A Description" that but not very many," says Noyes. and a -subsequent interpretive paper While there's no question that peom could save you hours of practice with ple are concerned about the hereafter, earphones. Noyes and Kletti interviewed studies show that people don't fear 104 people who had had near-death death nearly as much as they fear experiences. dying. Will I be in pain, disfigured, "The accounts revealed the almost in. abandoned? These are the universal stantaneous development of depersonal. fears. "What does it feel like to die?" ization'@--a cluster of reactions includ- is a question that's common to patients ing altered perception of time, lack of who know they are dying. emotion, feeling of unreality, altered at- Noyes's work, contrary to Moody's, tention, sense of detachment, loss of ' addresses these fears by explaining the control, panoramic memory, and the in- out-ofrbody experience and the accom- ability to describe it-" followed ... by panying phenomena as an automatic aseparation of the observing from the component of dying rather than a pre- participating self [OBEI. . . . Deper- sumption of being dead. "One may sonalization," write N oyes and Kletti, take comfort," says Noyes, "from the ". . . appears to be an almost universal fact that if suddenly confronted by [im- reaction to life-threatening danger. As minent] death, one might find within such it may be a basic adaptive pattern oneself the resources for coping with of the nervous -system. , . ." that frightful prospect. In such an ur- "It's an emergency mechanism," Fent moment, the strength may be Noyes told me, "a reflex action, if you found to effect a rescue, but failing like," which, as his article expla ins, that, to face life's end with serenity- "has been viewed psychologically as a even acce ptance." defense* against anxiet y. Freud felt we Yes. I find that a tremendous com- tend to eliminate deat h from our lives fort. And it makes me suspect that it's by becoming detached observers. ' no more necessary to rehearse for dying unimaginable, Our own death is indeed than it is -to learn to breathe. ' . so we perceive that we really survive But don't let The me ground you. as spectators. Thus, in the face of mortal nonchemical out-of-body trip may just i danger, we find individuals becoming ossibly be-like meditation-a first- p observers ... effectively removing them- class ticket to relaxation, self-actualiza- selves from danger." tion, and enlightenment. Noyes reports that 49 percent of the It may also be the quintessential vi- people he interviewed experienced de- carious experience for our plastic sur- tachment from body. A sense of harmony gery-prone, de-aging, death-denying d%f,2b7b&,V su ]OM, an YWt M hi au 451 , i' -'# % 16 in d y& jeople. have, every 8 Ifin "entidonto 01H forever. )UST FOR DANCING offers a new series of LATIN HUSTLE CLASSES Starting Jon, 3, 1977