Born
in Indiana in 1915 to a college professor father and medical
doctor mother and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, Robert Monroe
was the third of four children.
After
a childhood spent in Kentucky and Indiana, he attended Ohio State
University. Upon graduating in 1937 with a BA in Engineering,
Monroe worked as a writer and director at two Ohio radio
stations. Two years later he moved to New York and expanded his
broadcasting career, producing and directing weekly radio
programs and eventually forming his own radio production company.
During the 1950s his company was producing 28 radio shows per
month, including the popular Take a Number and Meet Your Match
quiz shows. At this time Monroe became well known as a composer
of music for radio, television, and motion pictures. He also
served as vice president and member of the board of directors for
the Mutual Broadcasting System network, was listed in Who's Who
in America, and was publicized in magazine and newspaper articles
on flying and radio production. Building on this success,
Monroe's production company acquired several radio stations in
North Carolina and Virginia, and later moved into developing
cable television systems.
In
1956 the firm set up a research and development division to study
the effects of various sound patterns on human consciousness,
including the feasibility of learning during sleep. Never one to
ask others to do something he would not, Monroe often used
himself as a test subject for this research. In 1958, a
significant result emerged—Monroe began experiencing a state of
consciousness separate and apart from the physical body. He
described the state as an "out of body experience,"
which has since become a generic term in consciousness
literature. These spontaneous experiences altered the course of
Monroe's life and the direction of his professional efforts.
While continuing his successful broadcasting activities, Monroe
began to experiment and research the expanded forms of human
consciousness that he was experiencing. He chronicled his early
explorations with a reporter's objectivity and eye for detail in
a groundbreaking book, Journeys Out of the Body, which was
published in 1971. This public record of his out of body
experiences in states beyond space, time, and death has comforted
countless people who've encountered paranormal incidents. It also
attracted the attention of academic researchers, medical
practitioners, engineers, and other professionals.
Ever the pragmatic business leader, Monroe, and a growing
group of fellow researchers, began to work on methods of inducing
and controlling this and other forms of consciousness in a
laboratory setting. This research led to the development of a
noninvasive and easy to use audio-guidance technology known as
hemispheric synchronization or Hemi-Sync®. In 1974, the original
research group was expanded to become The Monroe Institute, an
organization dedicated to conducting seminars on the control and
exploration of human consciousness. A year later, Monroe was
issued the first of three patents for the Hemi-Sync® method of
altering brain states through sound.
Throughout
the next 20 years Monroe continued to explore, research, and
teach others about expanded states of human consciousness and
practical methods of enhancing human potential. He developed a
series of multi-day workshops that enable participants to
personally experience realms beyond physical time-space reality,
built a campus for teaching and research, and created a portfolio
of audio exercises designed to focus attention, reduce stress,
improve meditation, enhance sleep, and manage pain among other
applications. In 1985 he wrote a second book, titled Far
Journeys, which expanded upon his personal investigations of
nonphysical reality. In 1994 he followed suit with a third book,
Ultimate Journey, which explores basic truths about the meaning
and purpose of life and what lies beyond the limits of our
physical world. Monroe died in 1995, at the age of 80. His legacy
continues today and has touched the lives of literally millions
of people all around the world.
