Really neat excerpts from "Far Journeys"- Being other animals, nature

Normally I don't post excerpts and things from books or articles, but this was really neat, and I knew others here would enjoy it.   It's from the book "Far Journeys" by Robert Monroe, which many here probably have already read.  I'm only just reading it right now, as I've never been too interested in astral travel.  Seems a bit...dangerous.  !  After reading this though I just might change my mind!    In these excerpts, Robert Monroe was once again meeting up with his non-human energy buddy whom he calls "BB" and BB was giving Robert the experiences of being things in nature.  It may not sound like much, but it really is amazing to read!!!!  It comes from the chapter "Promised Plan", and so far it's been my favorite chapter in the entire book.  I will post other really neat excerpts from this chapter later on.  For now, here are the ones where Robert gets to experience all aspects of nature. Sometimes you won't find out what he was experiencing until the next scene, so, see if you can guess.   

(Side note:   Robert Monroe uses unique terminology to describe aspects of astral travel since it's hard to describe in regular terms, so here's a list of those terms that appear in the following excerpts, so you won't be completely lost.):

Time-Space Illusion (TSI): An anomaly among the "standard" energy systems, which includes the entire physical universe

M Band: Part of energy spectrum commonly used for thought, not electromagnetic, electrical, magnetic, nucleonic, etc. M Band noise is caused by uncontrolled thought.

Ident: Mental name or "address," i.e., energy pattern of item

Rote: Thought ball.  A "packet" of thought/mentation, total memory knowledge, information,
experience, history

Run the rote: To recall portions of Rote after receipt of total

Percept: Insight Intuition Understand

Open: Receptive

Closed: Tune down (or out) external stimuli

Flickered: Uncertain

CLICK!: Instantaneous change in consciousness

Blank: Don't understand

Turn in: Consider, think over

Vibrate: Show emotion

Smooth: Get it together, in charge of self

Dulled: Lost interest

Lighted: Happy, idea, enthusiasm

Rolled:Amused, laughed

Curl: Organized energy, usually intelligent, local slang

Plied: The way things are, goes with the territory 

Also in the excerpts, you'll see "RAM" - that's Robert, for Robert A. Monroe.  And dialogue in parenthesis are comments from BB, to Robert.

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CLICK!

I'm floating over a wide brown field, just about three thousand feet up . . . I'm flat on the bottom and strong life energy is pouring up at me from below . . . I'm getting larger and larger and I eagerly convert the energy into being me . . .  I'm a whirling vortex and my action takes water out of the energy and helps me get bigger, and I become more conscious, more aware . . .  as I get bigger, I'm able to know more . . . I'm like a round puffball on top, and I feel myself growing upward more than outward . . . now there's much of my life energy flowing in me, building up . . .  (Wait, that's . . . electricity!) . . .  if I can keep growing enough before the water leaks out, if the energy from below lasts long enough, I'll get strong, really strong . . . but I'm drifting away from the energy shaft and I can't stop the drift, so I'm not getting enough to, enough to . . . 

CLICK!

We were floating over the earth, over a heavy forest. The brown field in the near distance was familiar. BB hovered in front of me.

He vibrated. (Fun, huh?)

I flickered. (What was that!)

He indicated behind me. I turned. It was a medium-sized cumulus cloud, white on the side where the rays of the sun touched it, gray on the back, with a dark flat bottom. Clouds have consciousness? The basis for life? Waters, minute bits of chemicals . . . and electricity! All the ingredients. What would a thunderhead be? Or a tornado, a hurricane, weather lows and highs!

BB cut in. (Ready to go again?)

I reached out and stretched, following.

CLICK!

I am in green water . . .  it is lighter above me and darker below . . .my mouth is opening and closing automatically, taking in water, which flows through my head and out my ears . . . no, not ears. Gills . . . I'm a fish, a very big fish! . . .  I can feel my stabilizing fins waving gently to keep me in place, my vision is split, I can't see exactly straight in front of me . . . behind me is almost a blind spot, but my peripheral seeing is tremendous, detail is exquisite, but not many colors, only one or two . . . I try moving, just thinking about it, and I speed forward very rapidly, turn right, left, roll, steep climb, then dive . . . wait, something on the surface when I climbed, gotta go back, grab it, hungry, hungry . . .  I shoot uncontrolled through the surface, mouth open, gulping in something as I do . . .  then out of the air and back into the water, diving with a great sense of satisfaction and something wiggling and crunching in the back of my mouth . . .  a bug? . . . deeper, but it's not dark as I thought, I can still see wonderfully . . .  I am aware of another fish diving with me, tail and back of the body sculling, sculling strongly . . . am I doing that, too? . . .  I am! . . .  it just takes care of itself . . .  I just think and it works, like walking or running in a physical human body . . .  I stop. Ahead of me is another fish, it is coming at me . . . no, it's gigantic, the water is deceptive, it's incredibly bigger than I am . . .  it has hunger signals radiating . . . go, go, it's after me, swim, swim fast, it's coming after me. . .  up to the top, up, up faster . . . signal in from my sides, another fish swimming violently beside me . . . signal from the stripes on my sides . . .

(RAM, when you’re in the air, skip! Skip!)

I broke through the surface into the air, reached out, and stretched. . .

CLICK!

I was just above the water, and I saw the body of my fish, with a second one alongside it, arch through the air and reenter the water with the smallest of splashes . . . but immediately there was a rushing, a swirling under the surface.

(Fun, huh?) It was BB beside me. I couldn't reply, I was shaking so hard, so he went on. (I guaranteed AA I wouldn’t let you go through the end of it. He had a percept you weren't ready and he was right. But you asked her about the food chain . . .)

I vibrated. (All right, all right!)

BB smoothed. (You always want it the way it is, don't you?)

I smoothed also. (Caught me by surprise, that's all.) (Well, this next adventure is quiet, nice and quiet. Ready?) Everything is relative, including BB's idea of quiet.  I reached and stretched . . .

CLICK!

I am waving gently up and down and bending, flexing . . . coursing into me from the smallest part of me, which is long and narrow with many tubes running through it, comes my share of the glorious life force, coming from the Whole, the family of which I am a part . . . and I know how much the Whole needs me and I gladly, joyously serve . . .  as the energy that makes me waver and flex flows past my flat sides . . . (Wait, that's just air, wind!) . . .  I take from it the parts needed by the Whole and send it back through the narrow tubes because it is needed . . .  I do this so easily I don't think of it as work, it's breathing . . . it's what I'm for, to breathe for the Whole as I take ashes from the Whole and spread it out into the energy . . . my happy exchange . . . and the other, oh so important, my special shape . . .  my profile, configuration . . . receives a special signal that the Whole understands, needs, and uses . . . all I do is receive it and send it on . . .  and I'm happy, supremely happy . . .with a total knowledge of belonging, performing as I was designed to do . . . beautiful balance, giving . . . receiving . . . security and
strength of the Whole . . .

CLICK!

BB was beside me. (Gets to you, doesn’t it?)

I flickered. (Where was that!)

He indicated, and I turned. Very close to me was a leaf, an oak leaf. It was attached by a long stem to a branch. Beyond the branch was themassive tree trunk, solidly dug into the earth. To have passed such knowing without awareness . . .  I understood more this new Human school.

(Ready to go again? This is my favorite.)

I flickered. (Well, uh, I'm not so sure. Maybe we ought to . . .)

(This one we designed ourselves,) BB cut in. (If you don't like it, give me a signal and we'II pull a quick skip.)

Reluctantly, I reached and stretched, followed.

CLICK!

I am lying down in soft thick grasses, lying on my side . . .  I open my eyes . . . tall trees surround me on all sides, their leaf-laden branches form a canopy far overhead, sunlight filters through to provide good but not overbearing luminescence . . .  a large tan-colored panther is standing over me, staring at me intently.

(Come on, RAM . . . let's play!)

I roll over and stand up . . .  stand up! . . .  I have four legs! How sure and stable it feels! . . .  my head is out in front of my body, now I have to turn to look at my back and hips . . . fur-covered, sleek . . . what's that waving behind me? . . . it's a tail, I have a tail . . .  I think about moving it, and it jerks . . . back and forth, back and forth, how about that! . . . but it goes up and down just a little bit, more down than up . . .  a scent gets my attention . . . smells, smells, I didn't know so many different smells existed . . . know instantly if they're near or far . . . the signal input is as good as or better than my seeing . . . and hearing, I could know everything just from listening . . .  I flex my legs, pull in my claws . . . yes! I have claws! I feel great! Watch out, world, here I come . . . such a glorious sense of being alive . . . totally alive, I want to run, jump, climb . . .

(Well, come on, then!)

The tan panther lopes off through the trees, and I follow . . . faster, now into a gallop . . . now running all out, dodging through the trees, easily avoiding low branches . . . the exhilarating flow of smells passing my nose and I sample them all . . .  my eyes and ears picking up, identifying and sorting a myriad of signals, all familiar . . .  a large tree is dead ahead and the tan panther runs right up the side of it and I follow, digging casually on a thick branch . . .  I pull up beside it, sit back . . .  he waves his tail . . . and I wave mine in reply.

(Pretty good for a beginner, RAM.)

I am too stimulated to reply. I am remembering the great sense of power in my muscles, sorting out the massive input that had come through my senses . . . how could humans have ignored and distorted such profound perceptions . . . have picked up so little of it when a lower animal . . . lower? . . . picked up so much. (Have to go down now.) The tan panther stands up, turns, and walks down the tree to the ground . . . walks down! I didn't know cats could do that, they always back down . . .  I stand up, and slowly back down, jumping the last eight feet easily.

(just lie down under the tree, near the trunk. Then pull a short skip, very short.)

I lie down in the tall grass, and very reluctantly reach and stretch.

CLICK!

We were hovering just above the ground, and I looked down. Below us, breathing shallowly and slowly, lying in the grass, was the body of the tan panther . . . and another panther body, a darker brown one, which I had occupied.

Beside me, BB rolled. (Liked it, huh?)

I vibrated. (Wonderful!)

(Well, we got one more for you to sample. This one, NA, uh, she picked out. She was sure it was your kind of stuff. You'II be alone, but she said you would know what to do. I'll just guide you there. Ready?)

Wondering what she would pick, I reached and stretched.

CLICK!

I am floating high over a rugged, snowcapped mountain range, and I can see for hundreds of miles in every direction . . . and I can see down, down on the ground . . . beautiful focus, in the most minute detail . . .the leaves on trees, small animals as they move over the rocks . . . and I am moving slowly, making a wide easy turn, the standing wave from the mountain ridge offering solid and steady lift under my wings . . . wings!  I turn my head. Extending out from my shoulder is a broad arching wing tapering to a round point, feathers ruffling in the slight turbulence. I roll my head to the left, there is one to match from the other shoulder . . . I'm not floating, I'm soaring . . .  as a bird, am a bird! . . .  a super sailplane that does exactly what I think! I break the turn, and the feathers on the trailing edge bend down on one side, up on the other, instant ailerons . . . let's reach for maximum lift . . . there it is, more under the left wing than the right, turn into the lift . . . feel the lift getting stronger and stronger . . . it's peaking out, turn and circle . . . tighten the turn, highest point of lift . . . must have a fifty-to-one glide ratio . . . spiral up, tighter and faster . . . perfect control . . .  air is thinner . . . keep higher airspeed . . . wonder where the stall point is . . . nose, no, head up more, higher angle of attack, more, hey, that's pretty good! . . . would never think a bird body could . . . oops! it does stall . . . easy to pick up speed again . . . Yeah! Just fold the wings and doooooown we go! (Hey, uh, RAM.)

And I bet these wings can take a big G load coming out of a dive if you open them slowly . . . let's see . . . we'll just dive a little faster . . .

(RAM, you know what you’re doing?)

That's about fast enough . . . now to open the wings a little at a time . . . slowly . . . now back on the stick . . . uh, tail feathers up a little at a time . . . there! All back to normal, back to cruising speed . . . what a . . .  hah! What a bird! Must be a condor . . . wonder what a quick sparrow would . . .

(RAM, just pull a short skip. Now!)

I sigh . . . reach and stretch . . .

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