Back in the early days of the manned space program there had been a lot of concern about something that psychiatrists were referring to as the “break-off phenomenon,” the notion that you would feel disconnected from the earth and its people when you were above it, particularly when you were in orbit. But when Manned spaceflight actually began to occur something unexpected happened. Apollo 14 astronaut, Edgar Mitchell reported experiencing a profound sense of connectedness, with a feeling of bliss and timelessness. He was overwhelmed by the experience. He said; “Every two minutes, a picture of the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun — a 360-degree panorama of the heavens — appeared in the spacecraft window. And I’d studied astronomy, and I’d studied cosmology, and I fully understood that the molecules in my body and the molecules in my partners’ bodies and the molecules in the spacecraft had been prototyped in this amazing generation of stars — in other words, it was pretty obvious … we’re stardust.” He became profoundly aware that each and every atom in the Universe was connected in some way, and on seeing Earth from space he had an understanding that all the humans, animals and systems were a part of the same thing, a synergistic whole. Only 538 people on this planet have left the earth, and all of them have reported that in one way or another they experienced this phenomena, this feeling of interconnectedness, not only with everyone on the planet, but with the planet themselves. Many originally thought they were crazy. Frank White, a Rhodes Scholar who was educated at both Harvard and Oxford University coined this strange phenomena the Overview Effect and founded the Overview Institute, to study it. After Edgar Mitchell came back to Earth he began trying to understand what this experience was all about, he couldn’t find anything in science or religious literature that he looked at. He was contacted by the local library saying, “Well, in the ancient literature we found a description called ‘savikalpa the sanskrit word for one of the highest of spiritual states where ones consciousness temporarily dissolves into Brahman..Or God. A neuroscientist/physician by the name of Andy Newberg with experience in space medicine has been trying to find out if there is a medical reason for an actual change in an astronaut’s brain function when in space but he’s noticed a psychological change in the men and women that have come back from space: “You can often tell when you’re with someone who has flown in space, it’s palpable”, he said He has scanned the brains of Buddhist Monks, people in religious communities, transcendental mediators and others around the world to try to understand how humans reach this euphoric state on Earth, and the startling thing he found was, that when returning to earth, the same parts of the brain that light up when people were undergoing religious ecstasy lit up in the astronauts too. This Sunday, at 11 am at Unity Church of Flint I will be speaking on this extraordinary and profoundly life changing experience. An experience that may be the first true merging of both the sacred and the profane, the mystical with the scientific. An what many believe, with private, low cost spaceflight and higher definition video technology, may be the key to our planets survival. In the 12th century the nun and mystic said, Hildegard of Bingen said, “Everything that is in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth, is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.” In the 21st Century Astronomer Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson said, Its quite literally true that we are star dust, in the highest exalted way one can use that phrase. ...I bask in the majesty of the cosmos. I use words, compose sentences that sound like the sentences I hear out of people that had revelation of Jesus, who go on their pilgrimages to Mecca.” No one knows whether this is a spiritual experience, the somehow re-wiring of the astronaut’s brains from seeing something so utterly out of this world...Or both. Dr. Newberg, the Neuroscientist believes that the overview effect may be one of the most important experiences we can try to bring to people. He said. “This experience needs to be made available for all people. It is also crucial to bring this experience to leaders around the world, regardless of whether they are political, corporate or academic leaders. All of us can benefit from this experience … that is deeply rooted in our biology. As a neuroscientist studying a broad variety of human experiences, it appears that the brain itself is capable of taking in the overview experience and converting such an overwhelming concept into our behaviors and thoughts. Individuals who have had the overview experience feel a breaking down of boundaries and a sense of the interconnectedness and preciousness of the Earth and all those who live on it. If this sounds interesting please join me in Flint for my sermon- An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth: Towards a Cosmic Consciousness- Orbital Perspective & the Overview Effect. And if youd like to hear more about the Overview Effect please watch this short yet mind opening film. Overview. https://youtube/watch?v=CHMIfOecrlo
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 18:23:38 +0000
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