journeys out of the body (into hyperspace?)

All of the recent 'scientific' discussion here reminded me of a particular
passage I read in Rudolf v. B. Rucker's GEOMETRY, RELATIVITY AND THE FOURTH
DIMENSION (Dover, 1977). I bought the book in 1978 just before I went to
rural Missouri to work on a HABS (Historic American Building Survey) team
for the summer. My work-mates/room-mates in Perry, MO thought I was pretty
nutty to be reading this stuff, but I was genuinely interested. Anyway, a
passage from the book's annotated bibliography has always stuck in my mind
because of its intrigue -- Rucker writes:

Robert A. Monroe, JOURNEYS OUT OF THE BODY, (Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden
City, NY, 1973).

So you're tired of just reading about 4-D space and want to go see it for
yourself? This book tells you how to get there. Unfortunately, it is also a
blueprint for insanity.

Monroe describes a fairly effective method of inducing a state in which one
has the feeling of being able to leave one's body, move through walls and so
on. Although he never refers to the fourth dimension, the idea of
investigating the sort of "astral travel" he describes with an eye to
interpreting the observed phenomena in terms of hyperspace is a tempting
one.

The technique is basically to "wake up inside your dreams." It is not
uncommon for one to have this experience during a daytime nap: that is, that
one is awake and aware although one's body is still asleep. If on begins to
look for this experience it begins to happen more often, and then astral
travel is not far behind.

I worked on this for a few months once, but finally had to give it up as the
experiences were so deeply frightening and disturbing. To be fully conscious
and aware, and to know that one is in a dream world where anything can
happen, to try to wake one's body up and not be able to--aaauugh! Indeed,
reading the book, one gets the impression that Monroe finally scared himself
into a heart attack.

But forewarned is forearmed, and perhaps some intrepid reader will be able
to make something of the old theory that we have souls that move in
hyperspace.

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I should mention that Rucker's book is very good, plain English science book
that is all about "geomerty, relativity, and the fourth dimension," and not
some sort of 'new-age' book.

I have never pursued finding Monroe's book, but there may be some renewed
interest now.

Has anyone here perchance read and/or 'experienced' the "journey" book?

lauf-s