Part Two of "Ultimate Journey" Impressions

A discussion of a book by Robert Monroe, prepared by  Abe Van Luik.

ITEM 4.   RESCUING THE DEAD

    Monroe did something earlier in his journeys along the spirit Interstate that
seems quite common: he rescued lost and confused souls, some of whom did not
even know they were dead and were still trying to interact with living persons. 
Monroe describes his rescues in general as well as specific terms, but it is the
general terms that are of interest to me here:

    "So I came to a conclusion. Helping others goes with the job. While you're
helping yourself, you automatically lend a hand to others, if you can do so. But I
was missing an important element. Why did this sequence of events suddenly pop
up in my activity pattern? Was this another key to the missing Basic?" (P. 177)

    "It was beginning to seem a never-ending task, this answering of signals for help
each time I went out-of-body, and it was certainly an inefficient way to do
whatever was needed. I could spend the rest of my available physical life period
doing this and nothing else and still make no perceptible dent in the mass of such
signals.

    "The question was: why had I suddenly become exposed to these signals after
so many years? And another question: why were they causing distress in my
physical body?"

    "It seemed that most if not all of these signals were originating in areas off the
Interstate (as I was now accustomed to regard it) immediately adjoining the
termination of physical existence, or death as we humans call it." (P. 125)

    This collection of statements is very similar to the observations and experiences
of another favorite author of mine, Annabel Chaplin, who, similar to Monroe,
traveled into the territory of dead souls who were lost or confused and sent them
toward the light where they would be welcomed by their loved ones and would be
OK.  She also discusses the draining of the physical body that results from contact
with these needy lost souls.  Her revelatory style is also similar to Monroe's, and
may also be compared with the revelatory observations written by Joseph Smith. 
Chaplin's description of her experience is:

    "It is important to state here and now that all mental images that I have
experienced were in full waking consciousness.  Never have I been in the trance
state.  I always knew who I was and where I was.  The mental images seem to
come from a source beyond my everyday knowledge, sometimes symbolical,
sometimes very factual.  For me it seems to come in sequential pictures and
symbols as though there were a movie projector inside my mind operating from a
higher source.  One picture follows another and I never know what is coming next.
. . .

    "With a little guidance many people can experience this method of learning. 
Some have a more natural aptitude for it than others, but it can be taught.  Like
meditation, one has to relax the physical body and the outer mind before slipping
into that other dimension which appears to be what Jung calls a waking dream, or
active imagination. (Chaplin "The Bright Light of Death." DeVorss, Marina del
Rey, 1977, pp. 11-12)

    Chaplin's description is reminiscent of similar words from Joseph Smith:

    "A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation;
for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you
sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same
day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit
of God, it will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and
understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become
perfect in Christ Jesus." (Smith 1960-1961, History of the Church 3:381)

    Monroe claims the same waking entry into his flights onto the spirit Interstate,
he is also not in a trance, but that does not mean that the out-of-body, spirit state is
not different from an in-body waking state, and an effort must be made to
introduce conscious control:

"the mind-consciousness present in the out-of-body state is significantly different
from that in physical wakefulness.  Initially, intellectual and analytical focus do not
seem to be present, at least not in terms we understand.  However, the insertion of
physical consciousness changes this.  Conversely, the emotional extremes of the
symbolic right brain are often totally absent and are usually more difficult to
activate.  (Love in a strict interpretation is not considered an "emotion" in this
context.)" (P. 11)

    But aside from the process of getting into the nearby spirit realm, there is the
striking similarity of this rescuing with the Mormon belief that Earthly beings
vicariously receive ordinances for the dead, and that in the realm of spirits there is
an active ministry to the dead to bring them to accept these ordinances for
themselves and thus bring them into the main stream leading to eternal life with the
Gods.  This seems to have been a common practice in the earlier years of
Christianity also, as witnessed by a second century tract called "The Shepherd of
Hermas," (now published in the "Ante-Nicene Fathers" volumes by Eerdmans
press) one of the most popular pieces of Christian writing for almost three
centuries, which describes this practice and its efficacy in rescuing righteous souls
in the spirit world as it was perceived even then.

    Is there a real difference between what Monroe, Chaplin, and the Mormons do
in the spirit realm?  There certainly is a difference in intent, but perhaps not in
outcome.  As Monroe explains it, time after time when he attempted a rescue and
took the person's hand to bring them up the spirit Interstate, they would just
disappear, wink out as it were.  This is how this phenomenon was explained to him
by an entity that was part of his own experience-cluster, his I-There, meaning a
part of himself from another place or time that he was temporarily dissociated
from.  The "us" he mentions refers to others that are part of his I-There cluster
(we'll get to that next).  

    "What happens is that some become so locked up in a belief system that they
never come back here, not even during sleep. We lose about nine out of every ten
that way.  They forget about us here completely. We keep helping anyway, hoping
they will eventually remember-and sometimes they do. We are there to catch them
when they fall through the cracks."

    Monroe observes: "That's not a good success record! But not all of those I
picked up were part of us, were they? I hope not."

    The I-There entity replies: "Only one or two. The others you retrieved-they
disappeared when their belief systems took over, didn't they?"

    Monroe: "So that's what happened!"

    "Their belief system is all they have to hold on to. So they go where they think
there is some kind of security. But they never forget our attempts to help them,
even though it doesn't fit with what they expect. In time a doubt arises, perhaps ten
lifetimes later, and a representative from their own I-There retrieves them and
brings them back where they belong." (P. 174)

    In other words, Monroe sees an exact parallel to the activity of the Mormons,
who are bringing all who died into the Mormon belief system in the world of
spirits, and ultimately together forever.  The Mormon version is something not
unlike what he has observed, but something not at all desirable, in his view, to
completing the true purpose of life.  Lost souls who accept Mormon teachings in
the hereafter would "wink out" and go into a belief system, where they would stay
in place and not progress, which is not good, is my interpretation of what
Monroe's reaction would be if he were to learn of the Mormon practice and its
purpose.  Monroe sees religious belief systems as dead end alleys off his eternal
lives "Interstate." 

     Of course Monroe makes no reference to either the Mormon belief system
or its practices of rescuing the dead into belief and salvation.

ITEM 5:     WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

    We have already made note of the Mormon doctrine of the salvation of the
dead.  That doctrine I recognize as having a relationship to a bigger Mormon
vision, that of seeing the whole human race, family by family, organized into one
great whole and entering into an exalted state sometime in the future.

    In my years as an active Mormon, I was driven by this vision of unifying my
family as part of a greater unification process.  It drove me to do genealogical
research.  I spent nights and weekends, and considerable resources on a few
occasions,  for more than a decade, to establish my ancestral ties and perform
hundreds of ordinances for departed ancestors and their relatives, in holy places
called temples that were dedicated to performing this work, in the hope that they
would accept these gifts as they received teaching in the spirit world, and we
would all be part of a greater unified family in the hereafter.

    In the earlier days of Mormonism this vision was less restrained then it is now. 
Now it is only possible to make part of your timeless family those for whom you
can show a family bond of some sort.  Ordinances that bound fathers to mothers
and children to parents are referred to as "sealing" ordinances.  Prior to the more
restricted practice of this vision, there was a time when any man could be sealed to
any man, regardless of relationship.  Of course that man's wives and children were
sealed to him also, hence one's extended family grew very rapidly through this
practice, promising one an immense principality of related souls by the time one
reached the hereafter.

    In one of Brigham Young's talks he refers to this practice, and its abuse: 
"I will here refer to a principle that has not been named by me for years. With the
introduction of the Priesthood upon the earth was also introduced the sealing
ordinance, that the chain of the Priesthood from Adam to the latest generation
might be united in one unbroken continuance. . . . By this power men will be sealed
to men back to Adam, completing and making perfect the chain of the Priesthood
from his day to the winding up scene.  I have known men that I positively think
would fellowship the Devil, if he would agree to be sealed to them.  "Oh, be sealed
to me, brother; I care not what you do, you may lie and steal, or anything else, I
can put up with all your meanness, if you will only be sealed to me."  Now this is
not so much weakness as it is selfishness.  It is a great and glorious doctrine, but
the reason I have not preached it in the midst of this people, is, I could not do it
without turning so many of them to the Devil.  Some would go to hell for the sake
of getting the Devil sealed to them. . . .

    "I have had visions and revelations instructing me how to organize this people
so that they can live like the family of heaven, but I cannot do it while so much
selfishness and wickedness reign in the Elders of Israel. Many would make of the
greatest blessings a curse to them, as they do now the plurality of wives - the abuse
of that principle will send thousands to hell.  There are many great and glorious
privileges for the people, which they are not prepared to receive. How long it will
be before they are prepared to enjoy the blessings God has in store for them, I
know not -it has not been revealed to me.  I know the Lord wants to pour
blessings upon this people, but were he to do so in their present ignorance, they
would not know what to do with them. They can receive only a very little and that
must be administered to them with great care." (1862, 9:269)

    (If the reference to polygamy, a plurality of wives, catches you off guard, well,
you are in need of a U.S. religious-history lesson.  Brigham Young here observed
there were abuses in the practice of that marriage system.  Modern Mormons do
not practice polygamy, it is now forbidden by the church.  But this topic is
off-topic.)

    The more interesting part here is the fact that Young claims to have had visions
seeing this grand unification of the human race, a necessary preparation for the
future state of humanity.  Monroe, surprisingly, has a very similar vision, but with
a twist to it.  This vision is played out between Monroe and his informants in a
dialogue recorded on pages 194 and 195, where his informants tell him there are
two types of nonhuman intelligence out there, and they are unpredictable.  The two
kinds are "those who had the same origin as we did but lived physically elsewhere
in the universe. They know how to work in time much better than we do, but for
the most part they have only a curiosity about humans."

    Since nothing was volunteered about the second kind, Monroe asks: "What
about the second kind?"  The answer he received was strange: "That is for you to
discover. When you have done so, when you have found the right one, we shall
have a new home. You will search among the Nonhuman Intelligences, and you
will not be deluded or led astray."

    Monroe then asks: "The search. Can you tell me exactly what I am looking
for?"  He is answered: "Where we go next. We have been storing up knowledge
and experience and now we have learned enough here. There is no reason for us to
stay."

    Thus, salvation for Monroe lies in his discovery of a nonhuman intelligence,
and somehow the "us" he speaks of, a cluster of being of which he is a part, will
then unify and leave this Earth to join that Nonhuman Intelligence.

    And just what is this Nonhuman Intelligence?  Monroe travels far beyond this
Earth and time, in an epic spirit journey that it takes all of his Chapter 15 to
describe, wherein he meets many strange and wonderful times, places and beings
including one who acts as if he is the God of the Old Testament who tries to detain
him.  Finally he returns to the origin to discover that it is the Creator, or Designer
of this Universe, that he has been seeking.  Then he returns to his body and draws
his conclusions about this wonderful Entity (pp. 224-225) to which we have
already referred.

    Monroe sees his purpose as bringing this cluster of being of which he is a part
to this Creator.  He describes this cluster on pages 226 and 227 in words that
reminded me of my experience with the unifying vision of Mormondom, which
included the bonding of all relations back in time because "they, without us, can
not be made perfect."  The point in the Mormon view is some sort of unification of
families backward and forward in time.  Another aspect of this idea of group
salvation in  Mormonism is the lore of the unification of whole groupings of people
into such harmony that they were removed from this Earth.  The City of Enoch
was supposed to have achieved this in antiquity and hence was removed to Heaven
in its entirety.  Monroe describes similar occurrences, one from the past and one
from the future that includes himself and required his vision of the Creator:

    "I remembered the human civilization of thousands of years ago that I had
visited.  They were more than a million in number; they had received their Signal
and were preparing to depart as a completed unit. I remembered too the sudden
"winking out"-the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of assembled humans,
no longer in a physical state, in the nearby I-There clusters bonded together. Lastly
I remembered the visit I made a few years ago, when I traveled some fifteen
hundred years into the future to a nonphysical human civilization of which I was a
part. They -or we- were on the verge of departure as a unified whole. My vision
was some form of final closure they had been waiting for, which I did not then
understand." (Pp. 225-226)

    Monroe observes about his own cluster's departure that it is held up awaiting
the total unification of all his own previous personas (the I that is not here now,
but was, called the I-There cluster) and all who were somehow bonded to him
either now or in those personas:  "The schedule for this Earth departure is
apparently in the thirty-fifth century. But we cannot leave until we have gathered
back all of the parts of each I-There in our cluster-a massive task. So we shall be in
the retrieval mode as needed, as parts of us drop out of the physical bewildered
and uncertain, or fall through a crack in a belief system that has held them
entrapped for so long." (P. 227) 

    Perhaps from this cursory description you get a feel for the nature of these
clusters of being and why they must be unified before entering through the
"Aperture" Monroe encountered, behind which was the Creator who still creates in
a never- ending circle of creation (p. 224).  Monroe expands on the nature of these
clusters and why they must be unified and collected prior to being able to approach
the Creator: "the collection and unification of the 'parts,' not only the errant and
missing ones in my own I-There, but the parts of the entire I-There cluster to
which I am bonded. I have no idea how many others are in the cluster. It may be
thousands or hundreds of thousands.

    "Why is there this need for total unification? So that we can become truly One.
Complete, and with a multitude of gifts of experience and love. Then we as a
Totality can wink out and pass through the Aperture.

    "And what then? The answer is unknown." (Pp. 226-227)

    Monroe mentions those multitudes that are part of the cluster because they are
bonded, either to him or some other who is part of the cluster.  What is the agent
of bonding?  Love, referred to as the "Big-L" by Monroe to distinguish it from its
paler imitations.  In Monroe's words:

    "Once initiated, it may be layered over or sublimated but never destroyed.
Physical death has no effect upon the reality of its existence, as such energy is
neither dependent upon nor a part of time-space.

    "It is a radiation that cannot be grasped and held on to. Instead it is perceived,
experienced as it passes through the individual, who adds to it that additional
portion which has been generated by this passing. The energy is thereby enhanced
and the individual becomes a constant contributor and recipient thereof.

    "With the heavy emphasis on sexual arousal and the myth of romance, it is no
surprise that so many claim to experience what we may call the Big L in their
relationships. Not so. The only way you can obtain it is through shared life
experience, and even then there is no guarantee. On the other hand it will grow on
you. You don't have to work at it, despite what the books say. Time is not a vital
factor. The deeper, more intense the shared experience, the less time it takes.

    "Other attractions are not necessarily destructive or valueless but they do fall
into another category. The difference is that the Big L is indestructible and eternal,
and never dependent on local habits and customs. Friendship, for example, might
be construed as a shadow of the Big L, or at least a kissing cousin.

    "The greatest problem lies in misidentification. We become entrapped into
believing we have found the Big L, often with disastrous results, when the ideal is
not adhered to by the "loved" one.

    "The most consistent and visible facet of the Big L is probably mother love. It
meets the tests admirably, although it often gets heavily layered with protocol.

    "Men find the Big L in other men and women in other women usually as a result
of profound experience over some time, although extended experience does not
automatically evoke the Big L. Yet when it does happen, sometimes effortlessly
and without conscious awareness, it is permanent in the full meaning of the word.
If you work together, play together, live together, fight, suffer, laugh, and team
together, the probability is increased.

    "The main characteristic of the Big L is that it does not diminish with physical
death and you cannot extinguish it during physical life. Out of necessity, propriety,
or for reasons beyond your control you may sublimate it, yet it will always be
there, glowing quietly within you. Why the expression "till death do us part"
became part of our culture is a mystery. Perhaps it was inserted so that the physical
survivor would feel emotionally free to remarry and beget more offspring to
further ensure the continuation of the species. Otherwise it makes no sense." (Pp.
80-81)

     The language used here by Monroe is similar to arguments made for the
eternal nature of marriage, and families, in Mormonism.

ITEM 6:     IF ETERNITY IS SO WONDERFUL, 

WHY STAY HERE IN TIME?

    Monroe waxes poetic in his description of the value of Earthly life and makes a
compelling case for staying here (and even coming back again and again).  His
recommendations to engage ourselves as fully as possible in Earth life are
reminiscent of the similar advice found throughout the discourses of the leaders of
early (and present) Mormondom.

    Sample these encouragements to live Earth life by Monroe: "The Earth Life
System, for all its shortcomings, is an exquisite teaching machine. It brings into
focus for each of us in our own way a wide understanding of energy, and the
control and manipulation thereof, that is generally unavailable except through a
structured environment such as time-space. The Earth Life System is a set of tools,
and we learn to use them." (P. 83)

    "Every single thing we learn, no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential,
is of immense value There -beyond time-space. This is fully understood only when
one encounters a graduate of the Earth Life System process of being human who
"resides" in the There. You then know, not just believe, that it is worth any price
to be human, and to learn." (P. 84)

    "Remember that your ultimate goal is not physical survival. Thus, while it is
valid that you are here to do certain things and there are functions you must
perform to be here to do them, you don't need to be desperate about it. Accidents
may happen, but you cannot lose; you have had the experience of being human."
(P. 89)

    "Enjoy your life in the System, maximize your highs and lows-but don't become
addicted. Get through being angry at how the system works, the seeming
inequities, the unfair advantages, the brutalities, the callousness, the deceit. It's a
predator world by design-and it's a superb teaching machine." (P. 90) 

    "Exercise your Human Mind as fully as possible, knowing it is only an exercise.
Build beautiful artifacts, solve "problems," smell the flowers and watch the sunsets,
compose music, explore the "secrets" of the physical universe, savor the input from
all of your five senses, absorb the nuances of close relationships and situations, feel
the joy and sorrow, the laughter, the empathy, compassion-and tuck all of the
emotional memory in your travel bag." (P. 90)

    "Learn too of the steady unfolding of the patterns that once seemed inviolate in
land, water, and air; of alloys, compounds, elements, atoms, molecules, nuclear
particles, radiation, and waveforms; of gravity, inertia, momentum, centrifugal
force, polarity; of the organic and inorganic, the living physical structures and their
processes.

    "Learn of the search for mind and creator; of belief systems, sleep and dreams,
visions and visionaries, philosophies and religions.

    "Learn also of Love."  (P. 94)

Monroe finishes this interesting chapter with a referral to and personal
acknowledgment of our debt to the animal kingdom of which we are an
exceptional but integral part.  I mention this because so many of the things
mentioned here are also mentioned in a talk given by Brigham Young in 1862
(9:246-250, selected almost at random since he repeats these themes so often) in
which he praises creation, including the animal kingdom, the Creator, and his
fellow beings who are the offspring of the Creator.  He acknowledges their innate
desire to do and be good, and mentions the marvels of the modern world, and
finally lands on the idea that wisdom and dedication in our endeavors in the world
that make life more pleasant and interesting are a prelude to going "to where
eternal wisdom dwells, and there diligently seek to possess it, for its price is above
rubies."  There is emphasis in Young's discourse on the negatives of sin, greed and
sloth and our need to overcome same, an emphasis not found in Monroe except
indirectly by his accentuating the positive in terms of the need to set out and
discover, create, learn, do good, and above all: Love!

THE BOTTOM LINE?

I found Monroe a fascinating, and very strange, read.  I take great comfort in the
fact that Monroe acknowledges the unwiseness of taking his vision as THE vision,
he is not trying to teach a new religion.

I found it utterly fascinating that there are so many parallels between Monroe's
vision of life, and Mormonism as I knew and interpreted it.

I see both Mormonism and Monroe seeking to take intuitively obtained knowledge
and expressing it in terms that others can grasp, a belief system.  Sorry, but I see
even Monroe's attempts to explain what he has learned in such a way as to allow it
to be grasped by references to commonly known structures (Interstates and dead
end alleys) as being attempts to create a belief system.  Monroe warns against
people taking this picture as a reality, and I appreciate that.

Perhaps a Catholic (heretical perhaps) mystic named Sister Katrei said more
directly what Monroe said in a roundabout way a number of times, when she
observed:

"I am confirmed in naked divinity, in which never image nor form existed. . . .  I
am where I was before I was created; where there is only bare God in God.  In that
place there are no angels or saints or choirs or heaven. . . .  You should know that
all that is put into words and presented to people with images is nothing but a
stimulus to God. . . .  You should know, that whoever contents himself with what
can be put into words - God is a word, the kingdom of heaven is also a word -
whoever does not want to go further with the faculties of the soul, with knowledge
and love, than ever became word, ought rightfully to be called an unbeliever. 
What can be put into words is grasped with the lower senses or faculties of the
soul, but the higher faculties of the soul are not content with this; they press on,
further and further, until they come before the source from which the soul flowed." 
(Story and citations from Martin Buber's "Ecstatic Confessions," Harper and Row
Publishers , 1985, pp. 154-156)

Sister Katrei reveals to us from traveling deep within her self a transcendent,
ineffable God in language strikingly similar to Monroe's account of his Ultimate
Journey.  It is also interesting that she says "whoever does not want to go further
with the faculties of the soul, with knowledge and love," is an unbeliever.  This is
strong stuff, but very similar to Monroe's plea and purpose in writing his book in
the first place.  Knowledge and love as higher faculties of the soul capable of
leading us to the experience of oneness with the ineffable God from whom we flow
is a very similar sentiment to that expressed by Monroe.  

My reading of Monroe and Mormon texts, as well as the revelation from Katrei, 
illustrate for me the wisdom and insight that can come to human beings, especially
human beings with a special gift for "seeing" and revealing what they see.  All
three sources describe things roughly comparable, but Monroe and Mormonism
interpret them very differently in terms of what they imply and what actions they
lead to.

Monroe encourages, like Katrei, the continuance of the inner journey. 
Mormonism, on the other hand, encourages the inner journey within some belief-
system constraints, but also has institutionalized very real and physical practices
that reinforce belief in some of these more esoteric insights, such as practices for
rescuing the dead from unbelief to make into a tangible reality the vision of a
unification of all past, present and future human life.

I side with all cited where they encouraged continually living for and seeking our
life-motivation from Love (as Monroe defined it, not forgetting the equation in
Christianity that God=Love).  My personal opinion is that all insights along the
way are gifts, are interesting, and I appreciate them and even seek after them to an
extent.  But just experiencing being, in the present, and finding and remaining
centered in and on Love, are already both a sufficient life challenge and reward.

Go Home