Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Review: The Out-of-Body Experience: An Experiential Anthology

Review: The Out-of-Body Experience: An Experiential Anthology

Edited by Rodrigo Montenegro

One my facebook friends, Mr. Nélson Abreu of the IAC (International Academy of Consciousness) was kind enough to send me a review copy of this relatively new book, The Out-of-Body Experience: An Experiential Anthology, edited by Rodrigo Montenegro.

For people who don't know about the IAC, it's a non-profit, multicultural, and universalistic (i.e. not religious) organization dedicated to the research and education in "conscientiology" (the study of consciousness) and its subdisciplines, one of which is out-of-body experiences. They give classes all over the world, and their work is mainly based on the teachings of the late Waldo Viera (author of the hefty tome Projectiology) of Iguazu Falls, Brazil. One of the main things they teach is out-of-body experiences.

If you've been following my blog, you know how much I love OBE narratives, and this book is mainly just that: a collection of OBE narratives from a plethora of people from all walks of life.

Many of the OBE narratives come from people who have taken the IAC's OBE classes. Consequently, they often use IAC terminology. For that reason, many pages have (by necessity) footnotes from the editor, explaining various words, ideas or concepts from IAC. The IAC-speak is the only drawback to this book. I've written about this in book reviews from other IAC authors (Luis Minero and Sandee Gustus come to mind.) In fact, there are so many terms tossed around, the book's glossary of terms is 37 pages long! But don't worry: not all those terms are used in the book. The terminology is actually not heavy, nor confusing. It's tastefully done, and explained well by the editor's footnotes.

I've said it before: I never get bored reading OBE narratives because they bring back the excitement of discovery, plus I use them to train my subconscious (as explained in my previous blog post).

I especially enjoyed the narratives where there was verifiable evidence to suggest the OBE was "real" (i.e. more than just a hallucination). My favorite one involved a guy named Ron Smedts from the Netherlands. In his OBE, he floated out the window of his second-story apartment. Looking for proof that he was seeing the physical world from a non-physical perspective, he drifted down to the parking lot and tried to find his car. He couldn't find his car, then became disillusioned when he noticed that every car in the parking lot was white; a very unlikely scenario. But after he returned to his body:
"As I passed a window I glanced out and stopped in my tracks: I was shocked. Every car in the lot was entirely covered with a fresh and uninterrupted layer of pure white snow." (pg. 65)

I also really enjoyed a narrative from Jean-Pierre Bastiou, an 84-year-old man of Brazil in which the author met with his dead mother, who appeared young and radiant.

Now comes the surprise. The OBE narratives end on page 227. On page 228 is an article about Near-Death Experiences (contributed by Nelson Abreu, guy who sent me the book). After that is another article that explains the IAC's "projectarium" which is a special facility they set up for the purpose of inducing OBEs. I've always wondered what the IAC facilities were like; now I know. (I've never taken their classes.) These are special small spherical buildings, each of which is like the Monroe Institute's CHEC Units, but perhaps given more forethought.

I really enjoyed this book. As OBE books go, this one meshes well with my belief system. It didn't say anything I strongly disagreed with. For example, their whole concept of an "existential program," in other words, life-lessons and life-plans matches my beliefs rather well.

The margins are small and the font is small, which means there's a lot of content, but it's a quick read; not heavy at all. The book is a good size--336 pages--but a lot of that can be skipped, like the glossary, the index, descriptions of the IAC's programs, and so forth. There are a few grammar problems (especially "OBE's" vs. "OBEs") but all-in-all it was very well done and professional.

You won't find any "secret" teachings, stern warnings, superstitions, or esoteric nonsense. In fact, there weren't any OBE instructions or techniques. Nonetheless, it was an entertaining collection of OBE narratives that demonstrates the wide diversity of the out-of-body experience.

I give it a thumbs up.

Since this book is not available in amazon.com (at the time of this writing), I'll just mention that you can buy a copy directly from the IAC at the U.K. IAC's book store or by sending email to: california@iacworld.org. Hopefully in the future, it will be available for sale at: store.iacworld.org.

Bob Peterson
24 November 2015

1 comment:

  1. Thanks Bob, it looks interesting. l don't like reading paper books, so l'm gonna wait for the Kindle version - they tell it will come out in june, so long wait.
    l saw another new one recently called 'Dreamism' by Jane Collings which looks genuine [296 pages].

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreamism-travel-journal-explorer-Experience/dp/1518817459/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1451869657&sr=1-1&keywords=dreamism

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