In his writings and his legendary talks to TMI program groups, Robert A. Monroe proposed the notion of a “different overview” as a method of eliminating fears by turning Unknowns into Knowns. In the article below, reprinted from the TMI Focus, Vol. XV, No. 2, Spring 1993, Bob presents his 9-step model for achieving a Different Overview.

A DIFFERENT OVERVIEW?

We keep using the term [a different overview] frequently, and I suspect there are often the unasked questions “What do you really mean by that label?” “How different?” “Why different?” “Why change?”

Let’s keep it clean and simple. Overview: This is how each of us perceives ourselves and the world in which we live. Yours is not exactly the same as mine, although we have much in common. Each is derived through experience and information gathered by personal communication objectively and emotionally within your own life pattern.

It is a meld of knowns, love, beliefs, hopes, fears, emotions, animal drives, addictions, mystique, illusions, propriety, all interwoven into a pattern of personality that determines our individual thought and action. It is what we truly are, as against what others may think we are.

A Different Overview is the only route to you becoming truly you. Keep this in mind each day.

Why a Different Overview (D/O)? Each day your Overview changes, usually very slightly and uncontrolled. If one desires rapid growth, changes must be willful and directed at the very specific areas that hamper the expansion you desire.

Do this and you immediately have the beginnings of a very real D/O that can alter your life constructively, whoever you are. The process is to convert any item above the LD into Knowns. The results are spectacular, especially from Unknowns into Knowns. Remember, such conversion is applicable to and for you and no one else.

How to get started? Use your analytical self. Take a blank paper and draw across the middle a Line of Demarcation, like this:

LD_______________________________________ LD

Now, take the position that everything above the line is Unknowns, the source of all your worries, fears, anxieties, hopes, and desires. Write them in. Below the line, list all of your Knowns, some of which may offer challenges or problems, but not fear.

Just above the line, yet penetrating it in part, are the many beliefs and hopes that constantly distract or disturb your life pattern. Each contains both Knowns and Unknowns in unequal percentages.

Your LD will generally start like this:

After you have completed the insertions on your personal chart, mark each one with a priority number. You are then ready to begin the D/O Daily Change.

D/O DAILY CHANGE:

1. Do something, anything, no matter how small, to move the top five priorities from their listed category into the direction of Knowns below the LD. It is rare that such can be done instantly. Even slight progress can be intensely rewarding.

2. Insert new Unknowns, hopes, or beliefs as they come into your awareness and interest.

3. Change priorities daily as you change.

4. Maintain and strengthen your foundation of Knowns.

5. After enough attempts satisfactory to you, delete (as illusion) from your chart any beliefs
or hopes that cannot be made to move even slightly in the directions of Knowns below
the LD.

6. Use the basic pattern: prove it to yourself first of all; no one else is important. Once is
 interesting. Twice may be coincidence. Three times, a solid Known.

7. Conversely, there’s nothing wrong in being stubborn. Don’t give up too easily.
Remember, the bigger the Known-to-be, the greater the personal reward (change).

8. Keep a diary—candid and in detail. It is the only way you can verify your progress in various areas.

9. A Different Overview is the only route to you becoming truly you. Keep this in mind each day.

Bob Monroe's particular wisdom emerged through years of deep-state exploration and painstaking record-keeping. His three books embody that wisdom. Together, they tell the story that is his legacy—and our liberation.

Give yourself or someone else the gift of a lifetime!