In February 1971, astronaut "Apollo 14," Edgar Mitchell experienced the obscure phenomenon, sometimes called "the effect of enlightenment» (Overview Effect). According to him, he felt a sense of understanding of the universe. Without warning, the astronaut says he experienced a feeling of bliss, timelessness, as if there was a strong relationship with the cosmos. Instantly and deeply astronaut I realized every atom apart from matter, and looked out the window and saw the other atoms of the universe. The vast expansion of consciousness. The most interesting thing that he was not the first nor the last of the astronauts who subscribe under the "effect of enlightenment" in space. What happens to the brain in a state of weightlessness?
Rusty Schweickart felt this sense of March 6, 1969 during a spacewalk from the "Apollo 9":
"When you are spinning around the earth one and a half hours, you start to feel the absolute relationship with the planet. This change ... it touches you so much that you turn into a lump of sensations. "
Schweickart felt almost the same as that of Mitchell, describing the intuitive understanding that everything in the world is interconnected stronger and deeper than it actually is.
Experience astronauts, followed by dozens of other similar experiments by other astronauts, scientists seriously interested in studying the brain. "The effect of insight", or an acute awareness of matter as synergistically related substances, suggestive of religious experience described by Buddhist monks, for example. Where does it come from and why?
In order not to produce myths about the human brain and its nature, it is necessary to understand more deeply.
Andy Newberg, a neuroscientist and a physician with experience in kosmomeditsine carefully monitors all who have had space travel. He says there is a difference between the people who were in an open space, and that - no, and wants to get it right. Newburgh specializes in finding markers of neurological brain in a state of altered consciousness. This can be attributed to the monks during prayer, transcendental and other mediums associated with transcendental psychology, representatives of various faiths.
Newberg discovered which regions of gray matter related to the manifestation of these effects, and now plans to use his experience to explore the "effet insight." Advanced brain scanning tools will be sent into orbit to lock the state of consciousness of space travelers. If the "effect of insight" really is a physiological phenomenon, it is worth exploring.
The first test will not Newberg astronaut, and an ordinary civilian. Rita Andersen leaves the planet with rocketplane Kistler. She says that being one of the first conventional explorers, happy to help Andy scan her brain to shed light on the puzzle. Why astronauts experience a state of altered consciousness, when they go into space, and if it will work at Rita or other civilian astronauts to experience it?
After decades of studies of their own insights, Ed Mitchell firmly believed that his "oneness" with the universe is a direct proof of how little we know about quantum physics. Quantum mechanics paradox rather than clear, and we have recently talked about this. It is noteworthy that quantum mechanics does not deny that the universe may be a higher intelligence (more info here).
In a recent interview with the writer Diane de Reynier of the "American Chronicles" Mitchell explained how the incident changed his life and look at the world and how each of us fits into the scale of the cosmos:
"Hundreds of years ago, the philosopher Rene Descartes came to the conclusion that physicality, spirituality, mind and body belong to different spheres of reality that do not interact. Then it was the signal for the Inquisition, it is possible to burn heretics at the stake, arguing that the church and postulate materialism thinking. And while it's all gone, the whole four years of science considers consciousness and mind as objects of philosophy and religion, not science.
In the 1940s, mathematician and physicist Norbert Wiener from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the first time identified the information as negative entropy. Entropy - a fundamental idea that the universe is exhausted and loses energy. But Wiener called information entropy in the negative, and that's great, but it is far from fully understood. "
Mitchell says, trying to fill in some gaps, in 2008 released a revised edition of his book "The Way of the researcher", which deals with the fact that science ignores the human consciousness. Using what he called a "binary model", the writer considers the "two faces" of energy.
"It's not two separate concepts, it is the energy as the basis of our existence in matter and the basis of our knowledge and information," - explains Mitchell. - "In our definition of science there is no consciousness. The only definition of consciousness in the dictionary says that a basic level of awareness (self-identification). Realize - so be aware of, and understand, so we have different levels of consciousness, depending on how complex the object. The laboratories have demonstrated many times that a basic awareness of its existence have even vegetables, simple bacteria, simple forms of life.
This was done using a Faraday cage. And it is proved that the information at its deepest, the quantum level, can avoid electromagnetic theory. And now we enter the quantum physics and we can not comprehend it. There is a fundamental understanding of what consciousness is at the heart of the essence of things. "
Mitchell believes that it is possible, both scientists and theologians do not understand the essence of things.
"I can say the mystics and theologians, that our gods are too small; they fill the universe. Scientists can I say that the gods do exist; they are eternal, and linked their minds - it is the experience of all sentient beings. "
In response to a question de Regnier, whether Mitchell believes in God or not, he said that although faith, but his faith is the assumption that God - a "white-bearded grandfather."
"We have before us a great mystery - the origin of the universe, and how it could happen. But the question remains whether the Big Bang right answer, and under what conditions and for what purpose it happened. I do not think that now we will be able to answer this question. But over time -. It is "
Although Mitchell can not explain the experience of enlightenment, it is certain that looked into another reality in which people, places and things are much tighter bound than we think. He also notes that the resources of our precious planet need to spend wisely.
"The great thinker Buckminster Fuller, philosopher, now deceased, but modern twentieth century, noted at the beginning of space exploration, we are all" the crew of the Earth. " But we are rebellious crew, and you run the ship with a rebellion on board? ".
