Robert Bruce (born 1955) is an English-born mystic author living in Australia. Bruce is best known for his studies of Out Of Body Experience, which first became public in the early 1990s through his activity in the alt.out-of-body Internet news group. Over time, he collected and peer-tested his findings in an evolving set of articles, A Treatise on Astral Projection, which he later expanded upon substantially to form his first book, Astral Dynamics, which has sold over 50, 000 copies as of 2008.
In 2008, Robert Bruce was listed as one of the world’s foremost OBE experts by EnlightenmentNext magazine.
Robert Bruce's influences include Robert Monroe and Franz Bardon and other authors in the field of out-of-body experience.
Energy Body Development
Whilst prototyping a visualization-free method of Out Of Body Experience for blind people, Bruce discovered a form of mental focus on parts of the body called tactile imaging, which is based on the sense of touch. This method was released in the mid 1990s in Bruce's tutorial New Energy Ways, or NEW for short. Robert claims that these sensations are caused by pre-movement neuron charging and discharging, and that this also stimulates the human energy body. This finding is in accordance with the claims of Eckhart Tolle and the Taoist teachings of Mantak Chia.
Bruce largely avoids traditional Eastern terms for aspects of the human energy body, considering them a significant barrier to Western understanding and acceptance. Bruce believes that many Eastern 'visualization' practices were not designed to be visual at all, with this interpretation being received by the West solely due to translation issues. By this reasoning, Western visualizations are largely misguided and ineffectual, whereas through explicitly working directly with visceral sensations, NEW is not. This direct nature gives NEW several of the qualities of a biofeedback system, most notably instant gauging of stimulative success. This additional intuitiveness over visualization is claimed to allow noticeable results in a matter of minutes. Tolle taught a method of focusing on physical body awareness as a way of connecting with The Now, that is similar to Bruce's Tactile Imaging methods, but Tolle does not offer a system of energy work per se.
Through exploratory manipulation of energy with NEW, Bruce has mapped out energy centers on the human body beyond the familiar spinal chakras. In his terminology, Taoist dantians are termed "energy storage centers", and Vedic chakras are examples of "energy centers".
Astral Projection
The Mind Split Effect
A key concept in Bruce's theory of projection is the Mind Split Effect. In contrast to the traditional view that projection leaves the physical body empty of consciousness, Bruce's interpretation is that physical consciousness remains in-situ, but is subject to a duplication process. According to this theory, after duplication the multiple versions of a projector's consciousness operate largely independently, building up separate but simultaneous memory traces that compete when they recombine (cf. Schroedinger's cat), confusing later recollections.
Bruce presents metaphysical workshops internationally and gives lectures where he instructs in methods to raise chi, shen, and ching energies for spiritual development, self healing, and Astral Projection. Bruce also teaches techniques for projection into the Astral Planes and the Real Time Zone, and has co-hosted a course on this subject with Maureen Caudill at The Monroe Institute.
He also provides consulting services on the Internet, including assistance to parents dealing with night terrors in children, online training workshops for energy work and astral projection, and assistance topeople with spiritual problems through his website and forums.
Bruce has written about his techniques in the book Astral Dynamics (with introduction by Dr. C. E. Lindgren) and co-authored Mastering Astral Projection with Brian Mercer. His 2002 book Practical Psychic Self Defense details methods of protecting against psychic and spiritual attacks by "negs" (a term coined by Robert Bruce to describe a variety of "negative energy entities").
Bruce is currently working on a treatise on the "Uraeus Effect" associated with Kundalini, to be published in a series of books on human energy work and spiritual practices, called, Foundations of Energy Work and Energy Work Practices and Energy Work Ascension. The first of these books, Energy Work: The Secret of Healing and Spiritual Development, has been released by Hampton Roads in June 2007.
