This was Robert Monroe's first book I read back in the 70's and 80's "Journey's out of the Body." Dude and Ryan if you are reading this, you should read of Bob's first astral trips; it might shed some light on your own.

Pris asked me a question this morn, he asked why I said that I wouldn't be on this board if not for Monroe and Bruce. I think he wanted clarification what I meant. I've told this story before but I realized, like I said before, lol, (I am a repeat edition)
when you get older guys, what u do best is repeat the best parts of life until they load you into the ol' coffin. so heres why I said that Pris, thinking you'd know what I was talking about.

I was attracted to Monroe precisely because I'd had a few obes and I was fascinated with the vibrations that occurred while I slept and which always woke me to C1.
there were other books to choose but I chose Monroe's to help me understand that my awareness could just walk around the house like that while my body lay sleeping. it always had something to do with being free from body restraints.
Here was another who popped out of his body and I could compare my trips with his. maybe I could learn to do it I thought, as I much enjoyed them even if sometimes I never got further than hovering above the body while those fascinating vibrations rocked my world.
was there anything out there? Not really out there, more like it was my world inside of my mind, but the irony is, that the whole world is inside of my head/heart.
because the physical world is not real to me anymore.

but I'm getting away from my explanation that I wouldn't be here if not for Monroe and Bruce. I wanted to find a way to be of service to humanity, and this is not a new concept..deep within all of us we want to know we are connected to our world and able to leave something good of ourselves behind when we go, even if what we leave behind is a child who carries on the ideal.
this concept is a lot like doing unto others as u would have done to yourself, its wrapped up in the PUL concept we expound here.
I read where Bob had had a trip and encountered a little curl attached to him as he glided and this was a retrieval. I pondered and pondered this astral world where a unit of consciousness, a little light being would find Bob a conduit to get to where he was going. the curl did drop into his own placement in the scheme of things eventually, which we assume was his proper bst region but the fact remained Bob had just given him a ride.
I pondered and finally asked the universe if I could be a conduit also one day. I thought it would be fun to help a curl get where it was going. I already knew I could go obe and if I was doing it, there were others who were doing it, and I met a few people who confessed yes they did it too, they just couldn't talk about it to most people. to make a long story short it was directly because Bob wrote his books that I was able to get my request to do a retrieval and be of service, so I could know I was more than I thought I was, I was this unlimited being who thought she was not worthy to help humanity. I didn't even know if I was a good mother, but the kids say I was.   it was a life changing thing for me and I often thought about this retrieval in the years ahead of me wondering if I could or would do more of them and what it meant. about 20 or so years later I found this board and found out Bruce was connected to Monroe and was quite surprised to find that connection but maybe it wasn't coincidental that I had found this board. as I wasn't here long before Bruce requested that we posters post more about retrievals.
we complied for awhile and the joint was rocking...lol...we rarely post retrievals anymore but you can bet they go on every day behind the scenes.
and they are a important part of humanity..like hands across the world, that sort of thing, very easy to understand if you're the sort of person desires that 1,000 years of peace people talk about. some of us could settle on just a few years of peace matter of fact! 

so now u understand why I wouldn't be here if not for that Bob decided to share his world with the book. and then Bruce decided to put up a forum for people who need to talk about their inner expereinces, because you don't talk about this in the supermarket and when you write it helps u get clear. and thats what its all about we get clear here so we can get clear on the other side.

love to all, alysia