Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788ROO1700210064-2
M.1,A,S, BULLETIN
A COMMUNICATION FROM THE MONROE INSTITUTE OF APPLIED SCIENCES
#G22580
DR. ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS
The following is an excerpt
from an article in the February,,
1980, issue of cosmopolitan Mag-
a.zine:
immediately read up on the subject and subsequently got in
touch with Robert A. Monroe, a Virginia businessperson
who has had hundreds of such experiences himself, some of
which he describes in a mind-boggling book called Journeys
Out of thc Bod 'v. Monroe has a laboratory in Virginia where
he does OL11-0f-body research, which includes experimenta-
tion with teaching people how to have out-of-body experi-
ences on command. Elisabeth wanted very much to learn
this so that she might better understand the experiences of
her patients, so she went to visit Monroe and succeeded
without difficulty in mastering his techniques.
Her account of where this led her began to flow in a
non,,top SLream of words that she constantly described as
inadequate to communicate the truth of what happened. I sat
spellbound as she recreated for me a remarkable experience
that she seems herself to view with, a combination of
matter-of-factness and a still-lingeriDg sense of amazement
and awe. She touched my arm often as she spoke, as if to
mak, e sure that I was still -with her" on her journey:
-When I decide to do something. I do it wholeheartedly,
and one great asset I have is that I am not afraid of.
anything-or almost anything. But Bob Monroe didn't know
that: so when I had my first experiment I went too fast, and
he interfered when I was just at the ceiling. He called me,
and I went 'kerplunk' back into my bed),. I was mad as
could be. It was the first time I was able to do it on
command, and it was a big thrill that it actual]), worked. I
was like an excited child, but just as I was getting to the
ceiling, boom. So the next time, I thought, 'I*m going to beat
him to it. I am going so far that he can't catch me.' That's in
Our language, which in an OW-of-body thing doesn't exist:
"So the moment we,staried, I said to myself. 'I am going
so f,.,st that nobody has e@er gone that fast, and I am going
further than anNbody has ever gone.' And at that moment
\vhen I said that. I took off faster than the speed of light. I
felt like I must have gone a million nides. in rn\ language.
But I @Nas voing horizontal instead of up. You 'understand
that in an oUl-of-hod\ experience there is DO space and DO
time. but vou are so conditioned in \our thinking that you
think \ ou 'ha\ e to go up or otherwisi You \vill hit a wall or
sornc&ng. The mornent I realized I was poing at the speed
of IiLht horizontal]\. I switched and madeca righl-angle turn,
roUnded a hiu, hill and went up. And then I started to
e\perinicni. It is incredible to get to a piace where there is
no linie and space.
wac. an important vo\age. and I had 2 Super 11DIC.
was in total, absolute. compiciest silence. and I "as thrilled
about ex.Pcriencing this. And I went to a place ,,, lar that
when I came back, something very incredible happened. I
felt like a beaming source of light is the best cickoriplion I
can give VOLI. I felt like a source of light that Could illUmi-
it an%
nate the darl,esi corner o@ the Aorld-I can*t describe
other wav.
-Whc@ I walked out Of the laboraiory, cYcrybod\ stared
at me and asked what had happened. but I had no recollec-
tion-] Could not remember or tell them where I was. All I
knew was that something so absolutely incredible had
happened to me that it was be\ond description. All I could
remember \vas the word Shanti Nilava, and nobody there
knew what that meant, They tried every,gimmick to get me
to remember, but nothing %korked-l know noA it was
because I didn't want to share it yet. It was too sacred to
share with a bunch of strangers.
"That night the sleeping arrangements where I was were
such that I ended up sleeping alone in a very isolated guest
house, and I.was in a questioning sort of conflict, feeling
that should I actually go to sleep there. something horren-
dous would happen. I thought of taking a room in a motel
and asking to be in the presence of other human beings. but
at the moment I contemplated my alternatives, I knew that I
had gone too far and could not ;ack out. I had to finish up
what I had started-that's all I knew at the moment. So I
went into that house. and I knew the imminence of some-
thing horrendous-not horrible, but hOrTendous-that
sornething horrendous would happen, I couldn't sleep, and I
couldn't stay awake. I wanted to sleep to avoid it, but I
knew at the same time that I could not avoid it.
"And then I had one of the most incredible experiences of
my life. In one sentence: I went through every single death
of every single one of my thousand patients. And I mean the
physical pain, the dyspnea flabo 'red breathing), the agony,
the screaming for help. The pain was beyond any descrip-
tion. There was no time to think and no time for anything
except that twice I caught a breath, like between two labor
pains. I was able to catch my breath like for a Split Second,
and I pleaded, I guess, with God for a shoulder to lean on,
for One human shoulder, and I visualized a man's shoulder
that I could put my head on. And a thunderous voice came:
'You shall not be given.' Those words. And then I %%ent
back to my agony and pain and dyspnea and doubling up in
the bed. But I was awake. I mean, it.wasn't a dream. I was
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reliving every single death of ever)- one of TnN dying pa-
's al.
fients-and @N, cry aspect of it. not just the phN' ic *
-Then about an c1crnit\ later, I bevved for a hand to
hold. My fanias 'v \A,'a,, that a hand would conic up on the
riviii side of the bed and I could hold it. And then a-ain this
voice: 'You shall Dot be given." Then you know, there %A as
the whole self-pily trip I went lhrouv,@: ']*\,c held so many
hands, and yet I am not to have even one hand in my own
hour of aconN-iliat whole thing. IShe laughs.] I didn't
have time to think of all this, but it was all part of the
auony. Then for a moment I contemplated whether I should
ask for a fingertip-a finvertip I couldn't hold on to, but at
least I would know about the presence of another human
heing. But' t@PICJIIN me, I said. Dammit, no. If I can't got
one hand, I don't %%ant a fingertip either.' That was my final
outpouring of rage and indignity at God or whoever, that I
didn't want a fingertip if I couldn't have a hand. It was
.Nomethine like anger or defiance, but also the realization
that in & 0111DIat .C ayon@ you have to do it alone@nobody
can do it for vou.
"Once I realized this, I said in almost a challen2ine wav-
and again this is not in words but in cxperience@'OL\,.
Gi\ c it to me. Whatever it is that I have to take, I am readv
to take it.' I guess by then the agony and pain-and this
Nvent on for hours-were so great that 10.000 'more deaths
,Aoul6i)*t have made any difference, since all the pain you
Could endure was alreadY there anyway. But the second I
said yes to it and really meant it from the bottom of my
heart, the moment I felt the confidence that I could actually
take whatever came, all the dyspnea, hemorrhage, pain, and
aeon\ disappeared in one split second, and out of it came
1@c most incredible rebirth experience.
1i was so beautiful there are no words to describe it. it
started as m\ belly wall vibrating, and I looked-this -was
full. open cN id, 'This can't be.'
Pes, fully conscious-and I sa
I mean. anatomically, physiologically, it was not possible. It
%ibrated ver\ fast. And then everywhere I looked in the
room-m\ levs. the closet, the window-everything started
io vibrate* into a million molecules. Everything 'vibrated at
this incredible speed. And in front of me was a form. The
closest .vay to describe it is like a vagina. I looked at that,
and as I focused on it, it turned into a lotus-flower bud. And
while I watched this in utter amazement-there \vere incred-
iblv beautiful colors and smells and sounds in the room-it
op@ned up into the most beautiful lotus flower. And behind
it was like a sunrise, the brightest light you can imagine
Without hurting your eyes. And as the flower opened, its
absolute fullness in this life was totally present. At that
moment the light was full and open, like the whole sun was
there, and the flower was full and open. The vibrations
stopped, and the million molecules, including me-it was all
part of the Aorld-fell into one piece. It was like a million
pieces fell into one, and I was part of that one. And I finally
thought, 'I'm okay, because I'm part of all this,'
"I know that's a crazy description for anybody who has
not experienced this. It is the closest I can share it with you.
It "as so incredibly beautiful that if I would describe it as
;, thousand oreasms at one time it would be a very shabby
comparison. fhere are no words for it, really. We have very
inadequate language.
"And then the next morning as I walked outside.it was
incicdible, because I was in love with every leaf, every tree,
ever\ bird-even the pebbles. I know I didn't walk on the
pebbles but a little above them. And I kept saying to the
pebbles, 'I can't step on you because I can't hurt you.' They
were alive as I was, and I was part of this whole :alive
universe. It took me months to be able to describe all this in
any halfway adequate words.
"And then somebody told me that this was an experience
of cosmic consciousness. I have had many experiences like
this since, always spontaneously when I least expect them.
But I have the experience first, the mystical experience, and
then I have to read up on what the heck it is, because I don't
read things like this or have time to study them. In a way I
am fortunate to have the experience and then catch up in
my head afterward.
"But Shanti Nila ,va means the 'home of peace,' which
is where we all end up one day when'we have gone
through all the hell and all the agonies that life brings and
have been able to accept it. This is the reward 'for all the
pain and agony that people have to go through."
Wonderful but Weird
By the time Eli%abeth finished this story, we were the only.
ones left in the cafvicTia. "Is it one o'clock?" she'asked,
inan is Veneraiq acknowicoyea. L narles, I . J art. 2 psVcJ1JUJV-
I
gy professor who wrote the introduction to Monroe s Jour-.
neYS Out of the BodY, considers out-of-body experiences
(OOBEs) to be "a univeral human experience'! in that they
have happened throughout recorded history with little varia-
tion in the descriptions of the basic event. "One can find
reports of OOBEs by housewives in Kansas,'.' be writes,
"which closely resemble accounts of OOBEs from ancient
Egyptian or oriental Sources.** r(A wide-ranging survey of
cases on record can be found in Herbert B. Greenhouse's
The Astral Journey.)
Although a mystical rebirth or "cosmic consciousness"
experience such as Elisabeth's certainly does not accompany
or follow as a standard part of the typical OOBE, it has
been found that people who have experienced themselves in
the "second" or "spiritual" body no longer question the
existence of an afterlife-the), have experienced being alive
and conscious outside thephysical body and thus know they
have some kind of soul that will transcend bodily death.
Certainly the subjects of Moody's investigation felt this way,
regardless of their religious beliefs prior to their near-death
experiences. I presume that this accounts for Elisabeth's
own deep conviction that "there is life after death beyond
the shadow of a doubt.". Her favorite metaphor for death.
now is that of the butterfly leaving its cocoon, and it is
through her own experience that she has come to see birth
and death as not so different from one another. As we were
on our way to the afternoon lecture, she mentioned that
she bad undergone 2ge-regression hypnosis and reexper-
ienced her own birth (she was the oldest of triplets and
weighed only two pounds). She found the CXPeTience of
traveling from her mother*s uterus and down the vagina
toward light and a waiting hand remarkably similar to the
"dark tunnel- experiences of her dead -and -revived patients.
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