◆ SpookStack

¢ fd | Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000400100022-5 It was late at night and Robert Monroe was lying in bed awake. His wife had already fallen asleep be- side him. Suddenly a surge of power began in his head and spread through- out his body. Trying to analyze what was happening, Robert let his mind ramble. A moment later, he felt something pressing against his shoulder. He reached back and felt a smooth wall. He tried to see in the dim light. He thought he had fallen out of bed. Then he looked again. Something was wrong. This wall had no win- dows, no furniture against it, no doors. It wasn’t a wall—it was the ceiling. Robert was floating against the ceiling, bouncing gently every time he moved. Startled, he rolled over and looked down. Below him he could see two figures lying on the bed—his” wife and his own body. “My reaction was quick,” he later said. “Here I was; there was my body. I was dying, this was death, and I wasn’t ready. Desperately, like a diver, I swooped down to my body and dove in. Then I felt the bed and covers. When I opened my eyes, I was in my body again.” ASTRAL PROJECTIONS A dream? Hallucinations? Fake? Not to Robert Monroe, who lives in Virginia. He claims that this mind- out-of-body event really happened. In the world of ESP, such experiences are called astral projections. Some scientists in psychic research believe that in an astral projection— or out-of-body state—the spirit or soul of a human moves out of the body and goes to another location. From that lo- cation, the spirit can then look back and see its own body. The spirit can also see other locations that might not be visible to the body—such as the next room. In addition, scientists claim that the spirit can go thousands . of miles away without harm—perhaps even into deep space. : The body, in the meantime, is not dead. It is suspended in a state that resembles a coma. Breathing con- tinues, with the heart and other organs functioning properly. INGO SWANN Robert Monroe’s experience is not supported by scientific evidence. But another man’s experiences supposedly are. He is Ingo Swann, and many of Mr. Swann’s out-of-body trips have occurred in a laboratory, with scien-, - entists hovering close by to study the effects, In one case, Mr. Swann sat in a dimly lit room, Above him, out of his view, a shelf suspended from the ceil- ing held three objects—an umbrella, a black leather case, and an apple. While scientists watched, Mr. Swann went into a trance. When he awoke, he was able to de- scribe all the objects in fine detail. He explained that his spirit had left his body, traveled to the ceiling, and studied the objects. Scientists cannot say for sure that Mr. Swann’s spirit actually left his body—there is no definite proof. But they feel that such an experience is possible if a person believes in having a soul or spirit that is separate from the body. In any case, scientists warn experi- menters that astral projection can lead to harm without a trained person near- by. For one thing, since the body is in a coma, it could be mistaken for dead and could be buried. When the spirit returned, it would logically awaken in a coffin! a if ‘