by Cezyl

In February 2005, a practitioner and writer who went by the name Cezyl (Darryl E. Berry Jr.) posted this essay to alt.out-of-body in response to a thread at the Out of Body Experience Research Foundation (OBERF) forums. It is not a theoretical paper or a skeptical debunking but a practitioner's manifesto — a statement of purpose from someone who had been investigating OBE since childhood and had committed their life to determining, with absolute clarity, whether the phenomenon is real.

What makes the essay remarkable is its intellectual honesty. Cezyl does not claim certainty. He catalogues the evidence he finds compelling — Robert Monroe's verified visits, Albert Taylor's skeptical conversion, Padre Pio's bilocation, his own experiences with a fellow projector named Louis Ruiz — while acknowledging that he has not yet acquired "definite personal evidence" sufficient to overcome all objections. The essay's central argument is that the question itself is worth a lifetime of investigation: "The definite proof that OBE is nonsense would be just as important to the world as the definite proof that it is valid."

The piece also captures the culture of alt.out-of-body at its best — a community of serious practitioners who treated the phenomenon as worthy of rigorous personal experimentation rather than mere belief or dismissal.

Do I really think, know, or believe it's real...

Thank you for your thoughtful post Russell G, for looking out for the best of me.

I see that 'obe1989' does conclude OBEs are lucid dreams. I must also look towards the evidence that they are really out-of-body experiences. Robert Monroe's book, Journeys Out of the Body, has several verified OBEs reported in it. I have had several OBEs with minor details validated.

Of course the thought crosses my mind, what if OBEs are not real. When I sit down and look at the results at hand, there are many projectors producing no evidence, and a few producing solid evidence, such as Robert Monroe, Louis Ruiz, Albert Taylor, Sylvan Muldoon, Bruce Moen, Padre Pio, and I'm sure the list goes on.

Robert Monroe had several verified OBEs, confirming the dress of those present, who was there, their look, and in one experience even leaving a physical mark on a person present.

Louis Ruiz has had several verified OBEs, some involving several people in many different situations — occurring over a relatively substantial period of time, and validating a string of different actions. One of the verified OBEs involved me. It was enough for me to know something is going on. I remember dreamily seeing and talking with him, wearing my unusual mode of astral dress that I created for myself. I mentioned nothing of the experience to him. How was he able to open the phone call with that he saw me OBE the night before, that we had a discussion but I looked dreamy, and also describe what I was wearing? If OBE is not going on, SOMETHING is going on that produces verifiable and accurate perceptions at a distance, as if we are in a nonphysical form. And whatever is happening shows the ability to affect physical matter at a distance both in tandem and not in tandem with the movements of that nonphysical form.

Albert Taylor has had several verified OBEs, including people present, their mode of dress, and the layout of the area, both inside and outside. The person being visited in one of his verified experiences remembers seeing him in a dream, seeing him at the foot of her bed where he was standing. He got all the details of her physical environment right, and she had a dream of him coinciding with the visit.

If I remember right, it was Sylvan Muldoon who saw his wife-to-be during an OBE, someone he'd never seen before.

Bruce Moen had several confirmed OBEs with a lady named in the book 'Rebecca', including total verification of what was said, done, and so on, involving several people, and several actions and activities. The experiences he's had of this nature cover the span of four books.

Several witnesses have seen Padre Pio in two places at once, for instance praying in one place, and administering to the dying in another. Some say this is a strong OBE.

Now there are people who are NOT having solid experiences. Why? One thing I see about those who ARE having solid and undeniably verified out-of-body experiences is that they are OBSESSED with OBE. They MASTER it. Suffice it to say that the above-mentioned projectors seem to be at it hardcore, or were at the time, developing, evolving, fine-tuning. Perhaps I will find that the EXPLANATION of 'out-of-body experience' is not ACCURATE to EXPLAIN what IS going on, but I am convinced that SOMETHING is going on, and I will find out what, and I will share it with everyone.

The answers to these questions and occurrences hold keys to the entire structure and make-up of human existence — either what it is, or what it isn't. Either way, this direction I must traverse, and with absolute clarity and with definite plainness I must determine its outcome, whether for or against. To know which way TO go is for me just as important as knowing which way NOT to go.

Someone once asked me at work, what if this is all fake, how long have you been into it, as if to say, are you wasting your time. I told him twenty years. My first experience was when I was four or five. Is it worth it? Yes. Now I'm able to get out here-now — traditional 'ghost in the physical world' OBE — minimum once per week, though I am still mostly stuck in my room. My skills are improving exponentially now. I'll be able to do proof-positive or proof-negative experiments soon, and I'm not afraid to.

You are not the first person who has asked me to deliver verbal proof. I extended to them the same offer I extended to you: practice and let us experiment and find out. Someway, somehow, evidenced by the above experimenters, accurate and verifiable experiences are possible! Remember, in one experience Monroe was PERCEIVED by a medium physically present in the room. This was confirmed. Someway, somehow, others can perceive this 'perception' of leaving the body. Padre Pio has been SEEN and documented as being seen in more than one place at once. I perceived a projector enter my room. What is going on?

Thank you for sharing your observations on me. You have observed in me my thirst for knowledge, and my zeal for sharing it. You can be certain that if I find that the OBE is nonsense, that knowledge will be clearly available to the world, just as will any and all further knowledge I gain of its reality.

I follow my heart, desire, guidance, and curiosity, and I trust that I am going in the right direction. I say that the definite proof that OBE is nonsense would be just as important to the world as the definite proof that it is valid. MANY people's eyes could be turned towards something more productive through my efforts if I clearly find this all to be nonsense, whereas perhaps only my eyes would turn away from it were I to stop now.

All the evidence pointing TOWARDS the out-of-body experience being a reality is too great for me to turn my back on. The above shared is only a sampling. I suggest everyone PRACTICE and RESEARCH. It seems that for the time being I'll have to turn my back on something. I won't turn my back on the evidence for OBE, but on the words against it. The words are just that. The sciences on the brain and physiology are just that. At one point science thought that the atom was a solid, unbreakable, indivisible ball. Now we are going further and further into the minute components of the atom, into quantum particles and waves of information with quantum physics. I don't presume that the sciences that pick apart the brain can be ultimate authorities on what is possible, not any more than the sciences that once said atoms are solid unbreakable little balls.

And as for the projectors that are not getting verifiable experiences and deem OBE to be lucid dreams — are they practicing as hard? Are they sharpening their skills? Are they as determined, intent, and dedicated as those above that have gathered for themselves absolute evidence? Are they 'exiting the body' in the same sense that Robert Monroe and Louis Ruiz do? I don't know. I can only know with me, and I am full-time. I am dedicated. If there is undeniable reality here I guarantee you it will not escape me. If there is undeniable evidence here I guarantee you that you will know about it.

As for all the things saying OBE is fake, like some scientists have found a part of the brain they can activate to cause what the experiencer reports as matching many if not all characteristics of an OBE — perhaps tapping or triggering certain areas of the brain can produce the perception of an OBE. Perhaps because the structure of the brain is generally the same for all of us, some quirk of the brain is causing these related 'hallucinatory' experiences across the human population, including throughout time, including reports of the tunnels, and the higher selves, and the Akashic Records, and the layout of the afterlife, and the structure of the nonphysical forms and bodies, and the list goes on. Perhaps. I am not studied in brain physiology, so I can't strongly comment on that. And even if I WAS strongly versed on today's physical body sciences, are the present day sciences still calling an atom a solid tiny ball, but now in the realm of consciousness and being? I CAN say that whatever waits on this end of the research, on the end that is in the paint, the end that is experiencing, I will find it, and I will report it.

I can't just overlook the definite findings made by so many distant projectors. Projectors in different countries, throughout different times, are finding the same things. The higher self for instance. I went to see the higher self, drew it, and later saw an illustration nearly completely matching the one I made of the higher self. I went to The Library on Focus 27, as labelled by Robert Monroe, and later saw an illustration that was so in line with my perceptions that it was as if we stood in the same spot, he facing a ninety-degree angle or so from the angle I was facing. The list goes on. Does some 'all brains are generally the same' explanation explain it all? I don't know. But SOMETHING is going on. I believe it is the definite leaving or separation of consciousness and one or various nonphysical forms from the physical body, and the above evidence and more points to this.

The evidence FOR it cannot be denied, at least not by me. There is belief on my part of course, for I still have not for myself acquired definite personal evidence. I have hints and absolute clues, but I can't say I did this and that and it's just absolutely enough for me to explain it all and overcome all objections. Thus I am still practicing OBE, and training others to OBE, and we will either be pioneers that redirect certain portions of humanity from going off a cliff, or pioneers that help cement into this society one of the greatest directions and discoveries in the history of this overly materialistic world.

Perhaps we are attaching the evidence inaccurately. Perhaps it's some type of psychic phenomena for instance. But the evidence of validation stands, I say. And if it is psychic phenomena, how does THAT work? What are these vibrations causing communication through time and space, unaided by man's precious metal and wire technology? SOMETHING is going on. What?

I hope to give hope to those who are seeking, and to state my definite intent to personally verify what is going on, and to share my findings with everyone.

Peace.

Cezyl

Colophon

Posted by Cezyl (Darryl E. Berry Jr.) to alt.out-of-body on 5 February 2005, in response to a thread at the Out of Body Experience Research Foundation forums. Cezyl was a regular contributor to the alt.out-of-body community and the author of a book on astral projection. His essay is notable for its insistence on personal verification over mere belief — a scientist's temperament applied to a mystic's practice.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected].

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