Robert Monroe

Robert Allan Monroe (October 30, 1915 – March 17, 1995) was an American radio broadcasting executive who became known for his ideas about altered states of consciousness and for founding The Monroe Institute which continues to promote those ideas.

Robert Allan Monroe was born in 1915 in Indiana and grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, and Columbus, Ohio.

His mother, Georgia Helen Jordan Monroe, was a non-practicing medical doctor, cellist, and piano player.

His father, Robert Emmett Monroe, was a professor of Romance Languages who led summer tours to Europe.

Monroe had two older sisters, Dorothy and Peggy, and a younger brother, Emmett, who became a medical doctor.

Monroe had an early fascination with flying and music.

According to his third book Ultimate Journey, he dropped out of Ohio State University in his sophomore year due to a hospital stay for a facial burn that caused him to fall behind in his studies.

During almost a year away from college, a desire to find work led him to become a hobo who rode freight trains.

He returned to Ohio State to graduate after having studied pre-med, English, engineering, and journalism.

He married Jeanette, a graduate student and daughter of a lawyer, in 1937, and divorced her in 1938 or 1939.

He married Mary Ashworth, a divorcee with a daughter Maria, in 1950 or 1951.

They had Bob's only biological child together, daughter Laurie.

In 1953 Monroe formed RAM Enterprises, a corporation that produced network radio programs, as many as 28 programs monthly, principally in dramatic and popular quiz shows.

In 1956 the firm created a Research and Development division to study the effects of various sound patterns on human consciousness, including the sleep state.

Monroe was especially attracted to the concept of sleep-learning.

This was a natural direction to take, applying to this new area the audio production methods used in the firm's commercial activity.

The purpose was to find more constructive uses for such knowledge than was ordinarily available, and the results of this research have become internationally known.

According to his own account, while experimenting with sleep-learning in 1958 Monroe experienced an unusual phenomenon, which he described as sensations of paralysis and vibration accompanied by a bright light that appeared to be shining on him from a shallow angle.

Monroe went on to say that this occurred another nine times over the next six weeks, culminating in his first out-of-body experience (OBE).

In 1962 RAM enterprises moved to Virginia, and a few years later changed the corporate name to Monroe Industries.

In this location it became active in radio station ownership, cable television, and later in the production and sale of audio cassettes.

These cassettes were practical expressions of the discoveries made in the earlier and ongoing corporate research program.

They divorced in 1968.

He then married Nancy Penn Honeycutt, a divorcee with four children.

His 1971 book Journeys Out of the Body is credited with popularizing the term "out-of-body experience".

Monroe developed Hemi-Sync which he claimed could facilitate enhanced brain performance.

He was one of the founders of the Jefferson Cable Corporation, the first cable company to cover central Virginia.

Monroe recorded his account in his 1971 book Journeys Out of the Body and went on to become a prominent researcher in the field of human consciousness.

Monroe later authored two more books on his experiments with OBE, Far Journeys (1985) and Ultimate Journey (1994).

In 1985 the company officially changed its name, once again, to Interstate Industries, Inc. This reflected Monroe's analogy of how the use of Hemi-Sync serves as a ramp from the "local road" to the "interstate" in allowing people to go "full steam ahead" in the exploration of consciousness, avoiding all of the stops and starts.

The research subsidiary was divested and established as an independent non-profit organization, The Monroe Institute, later in 1985.

Interstate Industries, Inc. remains a privately held company, now doing business as Monroe Products.

They remained married until her death from breast cancer on August 15, 1992.

Monroe developed ulcers in young adulthood and so was classified 4F (unfit for service) during World War II.

He spent the war years working for a manufacturing company that designed a flight-simulator prototype.

He wrote for an aviation column in Argosy magazine and was given a job with the National Aeronautic Association (NAA), for whom he produced a weekly radio show called "Scramble!", the primary purpose of which was to interest youth in aviation.

His daughter, Laurie Monroe, continued her father's program until her death in 2006.

Under the current direction of another of Monroe's daughters, Maria Monroe Whitehead, Monroe's stepson, A. J. Honeycutt, and Teresa West, president of Monroe Products, the company's objective is to continue to expand the Hemi-Sync line of products and their benefits into markets worldwide.

The Monroe Institute (TMI) is a nonprofit education and research organization devoted to the exploration of human consciousness, based in Faber, Virginia, United States.

Upwards of 20,000 people are estimated to have attended TMI's residential Gateway program during its first thirty years.