The OBE Outlook On Life: Review: Out-of-Body Adventures

Review: Out-of-Body Adventures

by Rick Stack

Today I'm reviewing Out-of-Body Adventures: 30 Days to the Most Exciting Experience of Your Life, by Rick Stack. The copyright is 1988, which is about when I bought it. I decided to re-read and review it at the request of one of my readers.

I was very excited when I first got this book by Rick Stack mainly because Stack was one of the early students of Jane Roberts and the "Seth" material, which makes him unique in the field of Out-of-Body Experiences, or OOBEs as he calls them. If you don't know Jane Roberts, she was one of the very first "channels" in modern times. She channeled an entity who called himself Seth, and his most fundamental tenant was "You create your own reality (from your beliefs)." This predates "The Secret," the "Law of Attraction," and hordes of others that followed. (If this interests you, my favorite Seth book is The Nature of Personal Reality).

So it stands to reason that Stack's book focuses mainly on changing your beliefs, assumptions, self-talk, etc., to induce OBEs. The book has gems like this:

"If you spur your imagination with belief, desire and expectancy, and train it to visualize your goals so that you see, feel, hear, taste, and touch them, you will get what you want. --Jose Silva" (pg. 28)

and:

"If you want to learn how to induce OOBEs, the place to start is with your own metaphysical assumptions, that is, your opinions and attitudes about your existence and your universe. Individuals who encounter difficulty in their attempts to get out-of-body generally need to examine and alter their belief systems." (pg. 28)

Very "Sethian" indeed. He takes a similar stance on psychic protection and "astral wildlife", i.e. negative non-physical entities:

"Since you create your reality through your thoughts, if you believe strongly in such spooky creatures, you conceivably could manufacture them and then meet your own creations. They will not really be demons, of course, because demons per se do not exist. They will have no power over you, since it is always you and your own ideas, thoughts, and emotions that determine your experience--no matter what dimension you find yourself in." (pg. 54)

Likewise, he stresses the importance of feeling safe, not only in OBEs, but in ordinary waking life as well. Here's an old message for today's troubling times:

"Feeling safe in your world is important not only for work with OOBEs but for your overall spiritual fulfillment. Feeling consistently threatened leaves to the curtailment of creative energy. It's true that we are often bombarded by newspapers and TV programs that constantly try to tell us how powerless we are to affect events in a dangerous world. We do not, however, have to buy this bill of goods." (pg. 66)

As you might expect, affirmations play a big role in Stack's advice about inducing OBEs:

"I often do about eight different affirmations in less than twenty minutes. Experiment with what works best for you." (pg. 74)

Some of his affirmations are:

"Getting out is easy! Anybody can do it! All you really need is the desire!" (pg. 102)

Stack gives a lot of advice regarding how to induce OBEs, such as:

Explore your limiting beliefs
Use affirmations
Record your dreams
Analyze your dreams

That naturally leads to the subject of lucid dreaming. Stack's view of lucid dreams is basically that a lucid dream is an upgrade from an ordinary dream, and an OBE is an upgrade from a lucid dream. This is something I've always believed: A lucid dream is an experience in which you know you're dreaming, but an OBE is an experience in which you know you're not!

Stack gives a number of OBE techniques, including:

Technique #1: An early (and quite good) rendition of "Wake Back To Bed (WBTB)" before that term was even coined. He recommends interrupting your sleep after 3.5 to 4 hours of sleep, no longer.

Technique #2: Floating out from the hypnagogic stage (visualizations, etc.)

Technique #3: Inducing lucid dreams and OBEs from the dream state.

Technique #4: The Joy of Flight (Using triggers and dream incubation to induce lucidity)

Technique #5: From the Inner to the Outer, which is basically just waking your awareness up without waking up your body.

Technique #6: Reflection (repeatedly examining your current experience and asking yourself "Am I dreaming?" and such.)

Technique #7: Counting down, which is where you try to fall asleep while counting up: "One. I'm dreaming. Two. I'm dreaming. Three. I'm dreaming..." (Others have suggested "One. I'm leaving my body. Two. I'm leaving my body, etc....")

One of the most valuable lessons from this book is about expectations:

"Once you get going, you will begin to expect to have out-of-body experiences from the sleep state. Thus, you can begin developing a habit of having OOBEs." (pg. 110)

What I liked most about this book is Rick Stack's up-beat enthusiasm. For example:

"The greatest value in the study of OOBEs has little to do with electroencephalograms, rapid eye movements, or even the ability to describe a mountain thousands of miles away. The greatest value is in the exhilaration of being out-of-body oneself, intuitive comprehensions received, and the glimpses of the mysteries of the universe that are available to the bold explorer." (pg. 17)

Stack really understands the value of out-of-body experiences. I loved this quote. It's kind of long, but inspiring:

"Since I'm no longer afraid of or uncomfortable about death, I am more inclined to focus on the reality of life's temporariness and use it for inspiration. This focus makes me want to maximize my life in every way. It helps me understand that the moments I spend with the people I love are completely unique, and even if I will know them in other times or other universes, things will never again be quite the same. It helps me cut through all the nonsense and pettiness that is so easy to think is important. It helps me savor and use my energy instead of squandering it. It helps me give up worry and enjoy my day." (pg. 22)

Stack has a great mixture of personal OBE narratives, techniques, and basics. The book is 150 pages, in a strange double-page format, with small margins. There's a decent amount of content. The grammar and spelling are top-notch.

This is a pretty good book. It won't knock your socks off, but it's solid. I give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Bob Peterson
06 October 2020

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If you want me to review a book about out-of-body experiences or astral projection, send me an email: bob@robertpeterson.org, but please check the index first to see if I've already reviewed it. Also, I've got a huge pile of books I'm planning to review, so don't expect a quick turnaround.

If you like my work, visit my website, robertpeterson.org, where you'll find lots of other free OBE advice and links.