A man sits in a darkened room at the Stanford Research Institute in 1972. He holds a sealed envelope, inside which is a photograph of a bridge. He describes what he sees: a structure of metal and concrete over water, with a specific number of spans. Later, the envelope is opened, and his description matches the photograph almost exactly. Across the country, another person lies in a floatation tank, watching her own body from the ceiling as the technician adjusts the electrodes. Both are accessing information beyond the reach of ordinary senses. Both are doing something that looks like magic. But they are not the same thing.
Remote viewing is a structured, protocol-driven method to acquire verifiable data about a distant or hidden target, without the practitioner’s consciousness leaving the body. An out-of-body experience (OBE) is a subjective phenomenon in which the sense of self appears to detach from the physical body, often with no requirement for external verification. The one is a tool for intelligence gathering; the other is a journey. The confusion between them is old, and it matters.
Where the Two Histories Diverge
The roots of the out-of-body experience reach deep into recorded history. The Tibetan Bardo Thodol (the so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead, 8th century CE) describes the consciousness leaving the body after death, a template later adapted by Western esotericists for voluntary OBEs. The shamanic journey — found in Siberia, the Americas, and Australia — involves the soul traveling to other realms while the body remains in trance. Plato’s myth of Er from the Republic (c. 375 BCE) recounts a soldier’s near-death OBE. In the 20th century, the phenomenon was systematized by Robert Monroe, a Virginia businessman who began having spontaneous OBEs in the 1950s. His 1971 book Journeys Out of the Body introduced the term “out-of-body experience” to the public, and his later founding of the Monroe Institute (1974) produced the Hemi-Sync audio technology designed to induce the state.
Remote viewing has a much shorter, more controversial timeline. It emerged from the U.S. government’s interest in psychic espionage during the Cold War. In 1972, laser physicist Hal Puthoff and his team at SRI International began testing the psychic abilities of Ingo Swann, a New York artist who claimed to be able to “see” any location given only its geographic coordinates. Swann’s success in describing a remote target — a site in the U.S. Midwest, led to what became the Stargate Project, a classified program that ran until 1995. The protocols were later refined into what is now called Coordinate Remote Viewing (CRV) and the more accessible Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV or ARV). The key difference: remote viewing demands a target, a blind or double-blind protocol, and a written transcript. The OBE does not.
What Each Practice Actually Asks You to Do
The two methods share a starting point: a relaxed, altered state of consciousness. But from there, the paths separate.
Out-of-body experience is often described as a shift in the “point of awareness.” The practitioner lies still, usually in a quiet room, and focuses on a specific technique: the Monroe institute’s “lift-off” method (imagining a rope and climbing it), the “vibration” method (inducing a body-wide buzzing sensation), or the “roll-out” method (visualizing rolling out of the physical body). The goal is to have the subjective experience of being outside the body, often floating near the ceiling or traveling to distant locations. The experience is sensory and personal. There is no external target to verify. The measure of success is the experience itself.
Remote viewing is a disciplined protocol. The practitioner sits at a desk or table, often with a pen and paper. The target is hidden in a sealed envelope or assigned by a monitor who does not know the target either (double-blind). The viewer begins by recording their “ideogram”, a quick, automatic drawing of the gestalt of the target, and then enters a structured process of perception: first the “major sensory input” (dimensions, texture, color), then the “analytical overlay” (what the viewer thinks it might be), and finally the “dimensional” stage (detailed sketching). The data is recorded in real time, and the transcript is later compared to the target. The measure of success is accuracy, not vividness.
Symbolism and Meaning: The Two Kinds of Travel
Both practices traffic in the idea that consciousness is not confined to the skull. But the symbolism each carries is different.
The OBE has historically been associated with the soul’s journey, the spirit world, and the afterlife. In shamanic cultures, the shaman’s soul leaves the body to retrieve lost souls, bargain with spirits, or hunt game. In the Western esoteric tradition, the “astral body”, a subtle vehicle that can travel on the astral plane, is a central concept in theosophy, Hermeticism, and the Golden Dawn. The OBE is a voyage into the invisible, a living proof that the self is not the body.
Remote viewing, by contrast, has no spiritual baggage. It was developed by engineers and physicists working within a military-industrial framework. The language is operational: “target,” “signal line,” “data,” “overlay.” The symbolism is that of intelligence gathering, a telescope, a reconnaissance drone, a spy. The worldview is not that the soul travels, but that information is available non-locally, perhaps through quantum entanglement or a yet-unknown aspect of the mind. The practitioner is a viewer, not a traveler.
How They Compare in Practice
| Aspect | Out-of-Body Experience | Remote Viewing |
|---|---|---|
| Primary goal | Subjective experience of being outside the body | Verifiable data about a hidden target |
| State of consciousness | Deep trance, often with sleep paralysis | Light to moderate altered state, alert |
| Body position | Lying down, still, often in darkness | Sitting, pen in hand, eyes open or closed |
| Verification | None required; the experience is the proof | Blind protocols, recorded transcripts, target matching |
| Control | Difficult to direct; often spontaneous or guided by audio | Highly structured, with stages and feedback |
| Historical origin | Shamanic, Tibetan, Greek, then modern (Monroe) | 1970s U.S. military parapsychology (SRI, Stargate) |
| Key figures | Robert Monroe, William Buhlman, Carlos Castaneda | Ingo Swann, Hal Puthoff, Paul H. Smith |
The overlap is real, however. Many remote viewers report that the process feels like a kind of OBE, especially when they enter a “deep” state and the target appears vividly. Conversely, some natural OBEs yield verifiable information: a person who “floats” to the ceiling and later describes the room exactly as it was, or a NDE patient who recounts details from the operating room. But the intent and method differ. The OBE is a state of being; the remote viewing is a protocol for knowledge.
What People Get Wrong
The most common misconception is that remote viewing is simply a “trained” OBE. It is not. A remote viewer does not need to feel that they have left the body. In fact, many experienced viewers discourage the attempt to “go” to the target, because the sensation of traveling can introduce personal imagination and contaminate the data. The viewer stays in the chair, and the information arrives as a series of impressions, not as a continuous journey.
Another confusion: that both phenomena are “out of body” and therefore the same. But the OBE is primarily a somatic experience, the sensation of separation, often accompanied by a lucid dreamlike state. The remote viewing is primarily a cognitive task, the collection of data under strict rules. One is a ride; the other is a job.
Finally, some people believe that remote viewing is a “higher” or “more advanced” form of OBE. This is a category error. They are different tools for different purposes. A shamanic journey to the underworld and a military reconnaissance mission are both forms of travel, but no one would confuse them.
FAQ
Can you have an OBE while remote viewing? Yes, it happens, but it is not required. Most remote viewers remain aware of their body and do not experience the full separation typical of an OBE.
Which is easier to learn? Most people find OBEs harder to induce reliably. Remote viewing has a step-by-step protocol that can be practiced with immediate feedback (e.g., drawing a target envelope). The success rate for beginners is higher with RV.
Are either scientifically proven? Remote viewing has been tested in controlled experiments, most notably the SRI research and the Stargate Project. The results were mixed but statistically significant, though the field remains controversial. OBEs have been studied in laboratory settings (e.g., by the Monroe Institute and in near-death research), but the subjective nature makes objective proof difficult.
Do you need to meditate to do either? Not necessarily. A calm, focused mind helps both, but the specific techniques do not require a formal meditation practice. The Monroe Institute’s Hemi-Sync tapes guide the state, while RV protocols provide a structured mental process.
The Library’s Role
We do not teach you to do either. But we keep the records straight. The distinction between remote viewing and the out-of-body experience is not a technicality. It shapes how we understand the limits of perception, the nature of the self, and the tools we have for exploring the invisible. The next time you read a story about a CIA psychic who saw a bridge from a sealed envelope, ask yourself: did he travel there, or did he simply look? The answer changes everything.
For a deeper look at non-local awareness, see our guide to psychic abilities. The glossary entry on astral projection covers the OBE tradition in more detail. And for those who want to compare related techniques, our article on developing clairvoyance is a natural next step.