Robert Monroe and Rotes

[Artimus]

I have just finished reading Robert Moroe's Far Journeys and have to wonder about his "recalling" of the experiences he had. For example: In this book a "rote" seems to be a piece of knowledge, or a perception. I'm probably not explaining this very well on its own, so I will use my own comparative example. Let's say I dream about a person that could be me, or someone else, or both at once. I record as soon as I awake. Now if I mention this person, I can either move on to what I think is vital, or go deeper with that person (or anything else). Like I can probably recall an entire history of this person's life that has nothing to do with the overall aspect of the dream that I want to record, so I might skip it and move on. Now here's the thing of it: When I'm done recording at that moment...I'm done. I will of course look back at the entry, but I won't add to it, unless it's noted the additions were added later. The reason for this is I think my perception of the dream will change later. What I mean to say is, my immediate interpretation will be different from one recorded later. Far Journeys is a great book, but the author does not go into much detail about how he recorded these experiences and put them together in a narrative format. I could gather he kept a not pad nearby and recorded what he could upon "re-entry". But then he mentions how he would sit in isolation to document the "rote" he recorded.

Opinions, thoughts? Anyone?

[kiwibonga]

Well, it depends on the kind of rote... When it's a message intended for instant communication, it's not that crucial to elaborate on everything it carried..

For instance, last night I met what I think was the ghost of a little boy, and when I asked him "why are you so cold to the touch?" (and just to make it clear, I do not get pleasure from touching little boys in my sleep, I just wasn't able to see so well so I had to use my hands to identify the thing that pulled me out of my body!)

His reply was very cryptic, it was a mix of emotions and messages that carried many meanings: "I don't know" / "That's just the way it is" / "That's the way it has always been" / "I don't think it's weird" / "It never occured to me that I should find out the reason"

When I transcribed this, I put down "That's just the way it is" -- it doesn't really make a difference.

But when you receive a rote that is a pile of condensed memories (for example the story BB gave to Monroe about the creation of the physical universe), you are not receiving instant communication, it is the instant transfer of experiences that another entity experienced.

For that reason, you cannot directly read it, you have to pick out all the events one by one and put them into your own memories in a way that makes sense to you -- to translate them. Since it is another entity's memories, you might end up coming across very non-physical things that are difficult to transcribe, but are far more important than you may first perceive them.

When you read this rote, you do take in everything it contains without exception, but what you will actually remember is the things that make the most sense. When you get back to the physical, you will have both your translation and the original -- this means first you will write down your own translation, and later you might remember details about the actual nature of certain things, maybe some things you have missed, or things that could use more descriptions.

I'm also a bit puzzled as to how he managed to write pages and pages about his experiences... I would guess that after decades of travelling, his memory became really good, in such a way that he could associate the memory of a lengthy conversation with just a keyword, and was able to fetch rotes from his higher memory -- most of us are struggling to remember last night's dream, while he can just snap his fingers and remember any event that he has experienced!

--------------- ULTIMATE JOURNEY MINOR SPOILER -----------------

In Ultimate Journey, he does mention being able to access the full extent of his being's memories, from his birth as a spirit entity to the present, as well as the "future," so it's likely that he went back to get anything that he forgot throughout the writing of his book.

--------------- END OF ULTIMATE JOURNEY SPOILER -----------------

[Artimus]

That's just the it! It seems like he had to craft his experiences in such a way that a mainstream audience (or book publisher) could make sense of. And that's where things get kind of fussy.

I've recorded dreams and experiences in my notebook immediately after waking. I'll set the book down for just five minutes and something will occur to me while in another room for instance. I'll go back to the book to record what I think I remember about something. Later on I see that I've recorded a fine detail about the same precept in two different ways.

I've trained myself to recall as soon as I wake, and I realize even then, it's still a translation of what might have REALLY occurred. But by recording immediately I think I'm getting as close as I can.