Paul Rademacher – "Spiritual Hitchhiker"

How does a Princeton-trained theologian fit into The Gateway Experience? Is there really a conflict between religion and spirituality? A good person to ask these questions to is Paul Rademacher whose autobiography is entitled “The Spiritual Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe – Travel Tips for the Spiritually Perplexed”. From building contractor to Presbyterian pastor to Executive Director of The Monroe Institute, the creators of The Gateway Experience. What an exciting journey!

Paul Rademacher – His Personal Journey

This book describes his personal journey and addresses the how he sees the differences between religion and spirituality. And as the title suggests, he gives his readers some tips for their own journeys.

If you have never read an issue of SuperConsciousness Magazine, then their current interview with Mr. Rademacher is reason enough. In the interview, he addresses the OOB experience. The interviewer made this statement:

“There tends to be a misunderstanding about out-of-body work that reinforces the material/ spiritual dichotomy, yet it seems to bring spiritual validity to our perceived material world, we have to come to the understanding that spirituality includes the body, not separate from the body.”

His response:

“It is an interesting dichotomy. On the one hand the Institute has been known for the out-of-body exploration, but that has been a misnomer. That is something we struggle with all the time as we try to reshape the public perception of what we do since most of that point of view comes from just reading Bob Monroe’s books which were all about the out-of-body experience.
In truth, Bob Monroe and the Institute over the years have found out that this is just one small slice of a very, very big pie. There is a renewed emphasis on bringing together the physical experience and the metaphysical experience into a whole. We really see ourselves as being of service to humanity and continue to look in the best way possible to help promote some kind of global awakening. That is really the force that drives us to do what we do.”

I would encourage you to check with your local bookstore to get this issue and read the whole interview. If your bookstore doesn’t carry it, ask them to start doing it; or go online and order it there: http://superconsciousness.com/

Paul Rademacher – The Path Documentary

Another way to get to know this fascinating gentleman is to listen to him talk about his insights in this short video.

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One thing that comes out of the SC interview is that there should be no dichotomy in the search for spiritual understanding; spirituality always includes the body. It is the temple in which we experience this life. The so-called “out of body” state is really a misnomer; we are simply exploring an expanded state of consciousness while we are in our bodies.

And if we are wise, we bring the knowledge gained on our explorations back to our physical world and apply them to make this a better world to experience in our bodies. This is the mission that Paul Rademacher is now pursing within the Monroe Institute.