Otherwhere: Outline
A chapter-by-chapter outline of Otherwhere: A Field Guide to Nonphysical Reality for the Out-of-Body Traveler.Part I: Orientation
Chapter 1: A Visit to Nonphysical Reality
Description of a lab session at the Monroe Institute, a research center dedicated to the exploration of altered states of consciousness: the author has a near-death experience, but without having died; he visits the afterlife, which is part of a nonphysical reality its inhabitants call Otherwhere because its characteristics are radically different from those that prevail on Earth.
Chapter 2: The Out-of-Body Training Program
A summary of twenty years-worth of unusual experiences and experiments in spontaneously induced altered states of consciousness, especially out-of-body experiences: a kind of training program that has prepared the author for exploration of nonphysical reality, or Otherwhere.
Chapter 3: Nonphysical Reality and Fear of the Unknown
Fear of the unknown is the greatest potential obstruction for would-be explorers of nonphysical reality.
Three ways to reduce fear of the unknown: orientation (getting a sense of what nonphysical reality is like through reading about it); familiarization (exploring nonphysical reality on one's own); communication (sharing one's experiences with others).
The purpose of adventures in nonphysical reality: to answer the eternal questions (how our universe came to be; what God is; the nature of ordinary versus altered realities; the origin and ultimate purpose of humankind; the existence of the soul; survival after death; and the sense of individual purpose in living).
The purpose of this book: to help people who yearn for adventures in consciousness similar to those of the author to reduce the fear of the unknown that prevents them from doing so.
Chapter 4: The Art of Translation: Describing Things Unseen
The difficulties of describing experiences in nonphysical reality in words: language derived from experience in physical reality; the necessity of using analogies to describe experiences in nonphysical reality; the importance of constructing a translation table through comparing physical and nonphysical realities.
The four stages of translation: immersion (presence within the experience); representation (in situ manufacturing of quasi-physical images in order to better understand the experience); description (the attempt to turn the experience into words); interpretation (the attempt to decipher the meaning of the experience in terms of the eternal questions).
Chapter 5: Aliens and Angels: The Making of Translation Tables
The analogies we use to translate experiences in nonphysical reality form a translation table. Translation tables may be public or private; private translation tables are based on personal experience; public translation tables are imbedded in myths and folklore; examples of public translation tables: the Christian translation table (entities encountered in nonphysical reality perceived as angels, demons, saints); the occultists' translation table ("geography" of nonphysical reality perceived in terms of planes and sub-planes). This Field Guide as a new translation table that does not invoke fear and thus prevent further adventures in nonphysical reality.
Chapter 6: Mapping Nonphysical Reality
Nonphysical reality has no spatial dimension; yet it consists of a number of distinct zones, each of which serves a different function; these functions may be related to one another by the construction of a kind of map, as for a subway system.
Part II: Field Guide
Chapter 7: Guides
Guides lead field trips into nonphysical reality (examples: Dante's Virgil, Beatrice; my encounters).
Chapter 8: Creatures
Creatures are apparently nonhuman, with a low level of intelligence; they often take monstrous shapes; they are actually materializations of the perceiver's own negative emotions, such as fear (examples from Robert Monroe's Journeys Out of the Body; my encounters).
Chapter 9: Rescuers, Helpers, and Healers
Rescuers are entities who rescue people from psychological or physical danger (examples from Monroe's Journeys Out of the Body; Dr. Raymond A. Moody's Reflections on Life After Life; my encounters).
Helpers are entities who provide assistance in achieving some goal in nonphysical reality (examples from Monroe's Journeys Out of the Body; my encounters.
Healers are entities who heal bodies or belief systems (examples from Monroe's Far Journeys; my encounters).
Chapter 10: Gatekeepers, Sleepers, and Rangers
Nonphysical reality is divided into zones; we visit the Dream Zone each night; a Barrier Zone with a gate separates the Dream Zone from the rest of nonphysical reality (Otherwhere); the Afterdeath Zone, to which human souls migrate after their bodies have died, is just on the other side of the Barrier Zone.
Gatekeepers are entities who guard passages between regions of nonphysical reality, determining who shall enter (examples from Dante; my encounters).
Sleepers are human beings still alive in physical reality and unaware of their presence in nonphysical reality (example: my attempts to get a friend out of body).
Rangers are human beings still alive in physical reality, aware of their presence in nonphysical reality, and able to move freely through it (my encounters).
Chapter 11: Instructors
Instructors are nonphysical beings who provide instruction (example: instruction in how to achieve lucidity--the awareness that one is dreaming--while in the midst of a dream).
Chapter 12: Instructors, Round Two
Further instruction in achieving lucidity in dreams--the ten levels of wakefulness in dreams.
Using lucid dreams as a means of entering nonphysical reality.
Chapter 13: Shades and Facilitators
Shades are souls of the dead, encountered in nonphysical reality (examples from Dante, Monroe; encounter with my deceased Grandfather).
Facilitators are entities responsible for guiding Shades through the various stations of the Afterdeath Zone.
The Afterdeath Documentary: an exposition of the learning processes through which the soul passes after death.
Chapter 14: Further Encounters with Shades and Facilitators
An area of the Afterdeath Zone where people may heal themselves of painful memories.
A scene from Immigration, the area in which the newly dead congregate.
Explanation of the conditions under which a Shade is allowed to visit his or her still-living relatives.
Chapter 15: The Shadow Worlds
The Shadow Worlds are areas of nonphysical reality in which people may see how their lives have been affected by choices made or not made at critical moments.
The Alternate Was Worlds allow people to see how choices made in the past may have diverted their lives from the course most appropriate for their development.
Chapter 16: The Alternate Is Worlds
The Alternate Is Worlds show people how their current life would be different had they made other choices in the past.
Chapter 17: The Alternate Will Be Worlds
The Alternate Will Be Worlds show people the consequences of a decision currently under consideration.
Chapter 18: Overseers
Overseers: human or nonhuman members of a council responsible for guiding mankind toward fulfilling its destiny as a race, sometimes functioning as instructor or guide for especially talented Rangers (example from Monroe Lab Sessions; author encounters).
Chapter 19: The Evolution of Human Consciousness
An Overseer-led lesson through seven stages of our development: 1) time as change; 2) growth through love; 3) nourishment from beliefs; 4) creativity--the instinct to bear fruit; 5) seeing things from the soul's perspective; 6) learning to harvest love in nonphysical reality; 7) graduation from lessons learned on or in the environs of Earth.
Chapter 20: The Grand Tour
A comprehensive tour of the Christian areas of the Afterdeath Zone.
Chapter 21: The Civil Servant
What happens to the personalities of people who never discovered or fulfilled their life purposes.
Chapter 22: The Masseuse
What happens to people who discover some or all aspects of their life purpose, but are unable to fulfill it.
Chapter 23: Mrs. Sackler
What happens to people who tried to live morally upright lives, but ended up running afoul of the human weaknesses of lust, fear, and control.
Chapter 24: The Choreographer
What happens to people who have discovered and fulfilled their life purposes in some form of creative endeavor, but who have been unable to purge themselves of lust, fear, and control.
Chapter 25: The Weighing of the Heart
A brief visit, by way of contrast, to an area of the Afterdeath Zone created for the dead of ancient Egypt.
Chapter 26: Gateways to Nonphysical Reality
A discussion of the various ways, both spontaneous and premeditated, in which people may gain entrance into nonphysical reality, including analyses of advantages and drawbacks: meditation; hypnosis; drugs; shamanism; out-of-body experiences; near-death experiences; lucid dreaming.
Sources Cited
Index