Leaving the Body

by D. Scott Rogo, Scott Rogo

Astral projection, the ability to "leave the body" at will, is a phenomenon that has long fascinated both the scientific world and the general public. If you have been curious about this strange power and are now ready to take your curiosity one step further, here is a complete guide to eight genuine methods that have been proven to induce out-of-body experiences.

Genres: Nonfiction, Spirituality, Metaphysics, Occult

183 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

He wrote or co-wrote 20 books and more than 100 magazine and journal articles, 7 books were reprinted in 2005 by Anomalist Books, Leaving the body was reprinted in 2008 by Simon & Schuster. Rogo was active at the Psychical Research Foundation (formerly at Durham, North Carolina) and at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. The D. Scott Rogo Award was established in 1992 to benefit authors working on manuscripts pertaining to parapsychology.
Born in Los Angeles, California and educated at the University of Cincinnati and San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge; he graduated summa cum laude from the latter institution in 1972. (His B.A. was in music; Rogo played the oboe and the English horn, and for two years played professionally with the San Diego Symphony and other ensembles.) Rogo served as a consulting editor for Fate Magazine for which he wrote a regular column; he advocated greater involvement by both researchers and skeptics in parapsychological research.
Rogo was open minded on the question of survival of consciousness after death, he wrote that he was "favourable to the survival notion" he was however skeptical about some of the phenomena involved in psychical research as he believed they could be psychological experiences. He is most well known for his book written with Raymond Bayless titled Phone Calls From The Dead (1979) in which they describe an alleged paranormal phenomenon in which people report that they receive simple, brief, and usually single-occurrence telephone calls from spirits of deceased relatives, friends, or strangers.
In his book The Haunted Universe (1977) Rogo hypothesized that strange phenomena such as flying saucers and Bigfoot are really psychic projections that are produced by the minds of the observers themselves.

Reviews

[john Calkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book traces the history of OBEs using information from travelers that is still largely available and offers Rogo criticisms of the usefulness of these travelers' techniques to achieve their crossovers. Rogo also uses criticism from other investigators to round out his evaluations. There are numerous methods available to those wishing to stimulate their own OBEs, none of them guaranteed, of course. Rogo himself is an accomplished traveler, which gives his evaluations a lot of weight. It was a relief that he didn't dodge the thoughts of mind scientists who insist that out-of-the-body experiences aren't real, usually leaving the reader to decide. He convinced me that all of the various experiences I've had in this realm have been true OBEs. All of mine seem to have been stimulated by outside conditions and I have been unable to cross over on my own. This frustrates me. I will keep trying. Rogo never mentions Thomas Campbell, who has used OBEs to assemble a most astonishing theory of everything in his "My Big TOE" books and videos, and I find that regrettable. I await the time when I can launch my own out-of-body experiences and won't have to read about them anymore. Until then, this book will be useful and quite readable.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and thorough, though a bit dated.

[Merit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and interesting to learn about leaving the body in either Lucid Dreaming and/or OBEs. Wasn't super gripping but it wasn't terribly long. I wouldn't read again, but I am glad I read it once.

[Anita Oz · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far this book is very interesting. Trippy yes, and not for the faint hearted! :)