OBE may stand for:

• Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
• Out-of-body experience
• Out-Of-Box Experience
• Open Back-End, functionality in computer software
• Off-budget enterprise, type of government body
• Outcome-based education
• Ottawa Board of Education
• Overcome By Events or Overtaken By Events, term from military strategy
• Original Black Entertainment TV, British-based television network available on Sky Digital
• O.B.E., Scottish disco house/funk/punk band
• Operating basis earthquake

Obe may refer to:

• Obe (Afghanistan), town also known as Obwi or Obeh
• Obe District in Afghanistan

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Robert Allen Monroe (October 30, 1915–March 17, 1995) was a New York radio broadcasting executive who became known for his research into altered consciousness. His 1971 book Journeys Out of the Body is credited with popularizing the term "out-of-body experience".

Monroe achieved world-wide recognition as an explorer of human consciousness. His research, beginning in the 1950s, produced evidence that specific sound patterns have identifiable, beneficial effects on our capabilities. For example, certain combinations of frequencies appeared to enhance alertness; others to induce sleep; and still others to evoke expanded states of consciousness.

Assisted by specialists in psychology, medicine, biochemistry, psychiatry, electrical engineering, physics, and education, Robert Monroe developed Hemi-Sync, a patented audio technology that is claimed to facilitate enhanced performance.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

He is also notable as one of the founders of the Jefferson Cable Corporation, the first cable company to cover central Virginia.^[6]

Biography[link]

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (December 2011)

Robert Allen Monroe was born in Indiana, weighing twelve pounds. He grew up in Lexington, Kentucky and Columbus, Ohio; his mother, Georgia Helen Jordan Monroe, was a non-practicing medical doctor and cellist and piano player. His father, Robert Emmett Monroe, was a college professor of Romance Languages who led tours in Europe in the summers. Monroe had two older sisters, Dorothy and Peggy, and a younger brother, Emmett, who became a medical doctor.

According to his third book "Ultimate Journey",^[7] 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 college Ohio State to graduate after having studied pre-med, English, engineering and journalism.

He had an early fascination with flying and music and had great mechanical aptitude. He displayed some ability to read music by age four without having studied the subject, perhaps by listening to his mother and sisters playing piano.

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. They divorced in 1968. He then married Nancy Penn Honeycutt, a divorcee with four children. They remained married until her death from breast cancer in about 1993 or 1994.

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.

In 1953 Mr. 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. 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.^[1][2][3][4] Monroe later authored two more books, Far Journeys (1985) and Ultimate Journey (1994).

In 1962 the company 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.

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.

Robert Monroe's leadership of the entire program of development were supported for more than 50 years by many specialists who continue their participation to this day. His daughter, Laurie Monroe, continued her father’s research into consciousness and the mind’s potential 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.

Hemi-Sync[link]

In 1975, Monroe registered the first of several patents^[8][9][10] concerning audio techniques designed to stimulate brain functions until the left and right hemispheres became synchronized. Monroe held that this state, dubbed Hemi-Sync (hemispherical synchronization), could be used to promote mental well being or to trigger an altered state of consciousness. Monroe's concept was based on an earlier hypothesis known as binaural beats and has since been expanded upon a commercial basis by the self-help industry.^[11]

Bibliography[link]

Robert Monroe was the author of three books:

• Journeys Out of the Body (1971) ISBN 0-385-00861-9
• Far Journeys (1985) ISBN 0-385-23182-2
• Ultimate Journey (1994) ISBN 0-385-47208-0

See also[link]

• The Monroe Institute
• Hemi-Sync
• Parapsychology
• Out-of-body experience
• Astral projection
• Lucid dreaming

References[link]

External links[link]

• Monroe Products
• The Monroe Institute
• Monroe biography

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (December 2011)

Graham Nicholls (born July 30, 1975 in London, England) is an author, artist and specialist on out of body experiences and spirituality. He speaks widely on issues around parapsychology, ethics and art at institutions ranging from the London Science Museum^[1] to the Cambridge Union Society. ^[2]

Early life[link]

Graham Nicholls was born in the Paddington district of central London into a working class family. He states that during his early life he was surrounded by crime and social problems, but that the influence of literature, art, science and spiritual philosophies helped him to look beyond the limitations of this environment.^[3][4]

Art career[link]

Since the early 1990s he has developed artistic works which explore subjects such as sensory deprivation, hypnosis, and psi abilities.^[4] Nicholls had his first solo show at a gallery run by James Fuentes in New York City in July, 1999 and in 2004 developed many of his psychological ideas into an interactive virtual reality installation at London's Science Museum, much of which was based upon his life and locations from his childhood.^[3] Technology and science take a central role in his artistic output, his virtual web projects being considered internationally recognised by the Handbook of the economics of art and culture.^[5]

Out-of-body experiences[link]

Nicholls claims to have had out of body experiences (OBEs) since the age of approximately twelve years old. ^[6] These experiences led him to study many aspects of parapsychology.^[7] In 2009 Nicholls outlined his experiences and ideas relating to OBEs in an article that appeared in Kindred Spirit magazine. In the article he makes it clear that he believes mainstream science will eventually fully embrace psi, or psychical perceptions as natural, rather than supernatural or paranormal. He draws upon the ideas of Brian Josephson, Dean Radin and Rupert Sheldrake.^[7] He also explores these issues in his 2011 book, Avenues of the Human Spirit.

As part of his inquiry into psi and human consciousness, in 2009 he began working on a series of telepathy experiments in a joint project with controversial scientist Rupert Sheldrake. The resulting data formed part of the Perrott-Warrick project, administered by Trinity College, Cambridge.^[8] Nicholls is also a member of the Society for Psychical Research. ^[9]

Activism[link]

In 2004 Nicholls founded an organisation called the Shahmai Network with a special focus on work towards relieving poverty, as well as human rights and animal rights. The network were official member's of the Make Poverty History campaign focused on campaigning for debt relief to countries in situations of extreme poverty, this culminated with protests aimed to influence the G8 conference, which took place in 2005. ^[10]

Books[link]

• Avenues of the Human Spirit (2011) ISBN 978-1-84694-464-2
• Navigating the Out-of-Body Experience: Radical New Techniques (2012) ISBN 978-0-7387-2761-5

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Graham Nicholls interviewed by Lilou Mace - Video interview about his book Navigating the Out-of-Body Experience, 2012
• Avenues of the Human Spirit - Interview about Nicholls' first book, science and skepticism, 2011
• Can Out-of-Body Experiences Explain God? - Graham Nicholls interview with Skeptiko exploring the existence of God, morality and the spiritual, 2011
• The Unexplained with Howard Hughes - Interview about his book as well as wider social and spiritual issues, 2011
• Out-of-Body Experiences: In Search of the Truth - Article by Graham Nicholls for Noetic Now, the journal of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, 2011
• Skeptical Investigations - A report on TAM London by Graham Nicholls, 2010