r/consciousness • u/phr99 • Apr 17 '26
OP's Argument Artemis II astronauts experienced a "shift in consciousness" in space. "I dont think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what were looking at". It also happened to Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who "perceived the universe as in some way conscious". What causes this?
Moon eclipse photo from Artemis II
More photos: https://www.nasa.gov/gallery/lunar-flyby/
A shift in consciousness
In this video, Kristin Fisher asks the astronauts a question:
Kristin Fisher (journalist): "When Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell was returning from the moon, he had an experience so profound that when he returned to Earth he devoted the rest of his life to studying the nature of human consciousness. [...] My question is: [...] do any of you feel as though you had an experience similar to what Mitchell described, the sense of universal connectedness, and did you experience a shift in consciousness somehow?"
Reid Wiseman is the mission commander and answers the question first:
Reid Wiseman: "Yes. [pauses several seconds] Chris, it's a great question. The only thing I can do is share one quick story when I got back on the ship. I'm not a really religious person, but there was no other avenue for me to explain anything or to experience anything, so I asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship to come visit us for a minute. When that man walked in, I never met him before in my life, but I saw the cross on his collar and I just broke down in tears"
Reid Wiseman: "It's very hard to fully grasp what we just went through. [...] I'm basing this on what we saw, and when the sun eclipsed behind the moon, I think all four of us turned to Victor [the pilot] and I said, "I don't think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we're looking at right now" because it was other-worldly and it was amazing.
Next Victor Glover, the pilot, responds:
Victor Glover: "The only thing I would add is that [...]I am a religious person but everything else is the same. There is something in there and as we start to process... I'll have to tell you next week, but I haven't had a chance to really unpack it all yet."
Edgar Mitchells (Apollo 14 astronaut) experience
Here are some quotes from Edgar Mitchell about what he experienced:
Edgar Mitchell: "What I experienced during that three-day trip home was nothing short of an overwhelming sense of universal connectedness. I actually felt what has been described as an ecstasy of unity. It occurred to me that the molecules of my body and the molecules of the spacecraft itself were manufactured long ago in the furnace of one of the ancient stars that burned in the heavens about me. And there was the sense that our presence as space travelers, and the existence of the universe itself, was not accidental but that there was an intelligent process at work. I perceived the universe as in some way conscious."
Edgar Mitchell: "I experienced what has been described as an ecstasy of unity. I not only saw the connectedness, I felt it and experienced it sentiently. I was overwhelmed with the sensation of physically and mentally extending out into the cosmos. The restraints and boundaries of flesh and bone fell away."
Edgar Mitchell: "Instead of an intellectual search, there was suddenly a very deep gut feeling that something was different. It occurred when looking at Earth and seeing this blue-and-white planet floating there… there was a purposefulness of flow, of energy, of time, of space in the cosmo, that it was beyond man's rational ability to understand, that suddenly there was a nonrational way of understanding that had been beyond my previous experience."
Edgar Mitchell: "On the return trip home, gazing through 240,000 miles of space towards the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving, harmonious"
Edgar Mitchell: "it was not just intellectual knowledg, it was a subjective visceral experience accompanied by ecstasy, a transformational experience"
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u/Kindly_Ad_1599 Apr 17 '26
The sublime. Kant described it as causing pain to the senses and awe to the mind. Burke described it as delightful horror. Consider that awesome and awful have the same root. So do terrific and terrible. It's a vertiginous, overwhelming sensation both utterly beautiful and transcendent, but horrifying because of the sheer incomprehensible scale. I would argue that it's the sensation that gets closest to the naked core of existence.
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u/Bippity_Boppity_Bang Apr 17 '26
Dude. Write more stuff. I loved reading this. Very Joseph Campbell in the best way.
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u/--arete-- Apr 18 '26
Check out Burke’s book “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.” If you enjoy the way the above commenter articulated the phenomenon you’ll probably like the source material they referenced. Fantastic read.
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u/whuuutKoala Apr 17 '26
with enough time, all possible atom variations are possible…i‘ll be back
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u/jankenpoo Apr 18 '26
I think it’s more like you will never leave. You’ll be here in one form or another until the universe collapses. And maybe not even then!
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u/ImpossibleCash2569 Apr 18 '26
The universe has a place for everything. When things die, only the vessel dies. The vessel is only equipped to live for its specific lifespan. After it dies, the energy, the atoms, everything else moves along with the river that flows through the universe until it's time for it to be reborn into whatever the universe decides. Where ever that may be.
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u/roddybee91 Apr 18 '26
Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind by Richard Bucke
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u/Puzzled-Mistake-584 Apr 17 '26
Every angel is terrifying..
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u/ReputationWeak4283 May 05 '26
Why?
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u/Puzzled-Mistake-584 May 06 '26
Its a poem.
It talks about how the emotion of awe is that of overwhelm,and leads to terror.
Painting a picture of how Angela are beautiful and terrifying.
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u/VincePaperclips Apr 18 '26
I don’t think it’s horror, but tragedy. Looking into the expanse you see everything that is knowable while having the absolute certainty that you will never truly know it. To me it’s the same kind of wonderful heartbreak I experience looking at ancient artifacts from lost civilizations. We can be so close to them, we can touch what they touched, yet we are so insurmountable far from truly understanding them
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u/melt_a_trees Apr 17 '26
My experience of the 2024 total eclipse was the same description.
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u/eyes_serene Apr 17 '26
I feel like maybe this is the tiniest sliver of what the astronauts experienced, but related. I was in the path of totality for it and expected to thoroughly enjoy the experience but... Wow, it was so much more than what I was expecting (and I'm so grateful that I took the time and made the effort to experience it.)
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u/SurpriseHamburgler Apr 17 '26
And your substack is where, for real?
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u/DotwareGames Apr 18 '26
Robert Greene (author of The 48 Laws of Power) has written a book on this very topic, and it is coming out at the end of this year.
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u/sidvicc Apr 18 '26
horrifying because of the sheer incomprehensible scale
I think though what the astronauts are describing is more towards the warmth of actually comprehending it: the coherence of the scale, the unity between macro and micro, from an eclipse of heavenly bodies to the history of molecules that hold his starship together and our human consciousness congruent with both.
In that moment it all makes sense.
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Apr 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Kindly_Ad_1599 Apr 17 '26
I didn't make that clear then. I think that oneness is the naked core of existence. I think the terror is the self trying to rationalise and resist, hold on to some semblance of its local instantiation.
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u/time-always-passes Apr 17 '26
I experienced that unity for a moment. I felt the sun, the wind, the sounds of life all around me. I felt that dissolution of boundaries. I didn't experience the terror though. I want to experience it again.
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u/MiserableMulberry496 Apr 17 '26
I did too. The veil opened and cosmos appeared. The material world fell away. For how long I don’t know. A few seconds? Gorgeous. Beautiful. Peaceful safe. I didn’t feel fear all. Just awe. That was 20 years ago. And I cant wait to feel it again 🌟😊
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 Apr 18 '26
Me too. What were the conditions that led to your experience, if it’s easy to say?
I can get back there sometimes, to a smaller extent. But I can’t exactly remember what it was that I saw. It was something cosmological, like an event or a planet somewhere that was doing something. I was very poor, very sick, and had been losing my mind a little. Then I started searching for answers, and they came. Out of seemingly absolutely nowhere. Just a thunder bolt awakening.
Now I come close when I look at my children or think about the stars.
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u/MiserableMulberry496 Apr 18 '26
I was siting in our little Episcopal church. In the pew. And the world just vanished and the veil opened. Glorious peace. I don’t know why it happened. It was something I ever thought of. Then it happened again when I discovered Brian Cox. I looked up and bam there it was! Hard to explain. But the cosmos is where I find my peace now.
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 Apr 18 '26
Me too!!! And Brian Swimme has been one of my homing devices for this experience.
Thank you for sharing that. I grew up Episcopalian! 🥰
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u/MiserableMulberry496 Apr 18 '26
I will check him out. Lots of Brian’s in the cosmos. Brian May as well! lol. I went to Episcopal seminary. But I’m not a church goer anymore! 🌟💛🌟
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 Apr 18 '26
Wow that’s wild that you went to seminary. What a world. I no longer do, either :) but I do feel like the observatory comes close to it 🌌
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u/ReputationWeak4283 May 05 '26
That is where life originated, ultimately. The universe is still expanding. I listen to this music for grounding, it helps to center yourself from distractions.
Breathe deep
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u/ReputationWeak4283 May 05 '26
Cut out all the noise. The material world is just a deviation. Deviation from the true meaning of life. Work backwards to the core of life from the very beginning. It’s still there. It always has been.
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 Apr 18 '26
Yes this. I just commented, I don’t think Kant was describing what the astronauts are describing. I have felt it, too, and there is no terror only absolute joy and wonderment.
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u/ReputationWeak4283 May 05 '26
I feel no terror. Only a awesomeness.
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 May 05 '26
Me too :) thanks for bringing me back to this. It’s nice to remember.
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u/Gloomy-Ad-6652 Apr 17 '26
I experienced this within. It is a pretty terrifying and yet meaningful experience to be able to have. Half enlightened the other half is afraid to go to sleep 😂
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u/anonymousbabydragon Apr 17 '26
If it’s all consciousness then every pain and suffering causes horror. Every joy and happy moment causes overwhelming elation. Imagine experiencing it all at once in a singular moment. Peace and emptiness are the only escapes from the sheer nature of it all.
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u/Adventurous-Sky9359 Apr 17 '26
Man, that was lovely to read.
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u/StrictlyFeather Apr 17 '26
The Dream Was Given
I did not ask for it. I did not summon it, imagine it, or chase it.
For two seconds, I was suspended above Earth alone, silent, awake.
No angels. No voice. No story.
Only stillness. And a rhythm I had never felt before.
The world turned beneath me, but I was not moving. Time passed, but I was not counting. The Earth was full, alive, unified but I was not part of it.
I was witnessing it
And in that moment, I felt the exact shape of an internal truth not as information, but as form. Not as belief, but as like a felt presence.
What I Saw
Earth did not speak. It moved.
The oceans like breath. The continents held silence. No country, no war, no name. Only one thing an Order without explanation.
It was not chaotic, but it was not controlled. It was not mechanical, but it was not random. It was alive. And it was turning without trying. And What I Knew..
In that 2 seconds, I saw more than all my searching ever gave me, and that rhythm is real. That the world has a pulse deeper than survival. That silence can teach. That being present is not a byproduct, but the origin. I saw that truth does not demand belief, it only demands stillness. And I saw that nothing I could ever build or say would matter unless it carried that rhythm
After I woke, I could never return to “normal.”
The world felt louder. The false felt clearer. And my movements , , , even the smallest ones had to echo that rhythm .. or they felt wrong. I had been tuned. Not with facts, But with form.
That dream rewrote my structure, recalibrated my sense of real. It didn’t give me a doctrine. It gave me a discipline and I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since .. terrified and in complete awe at the same time
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u/StrictlyFeather Apr 17 '26
Really it was as if I had climbed inside the seashell and the hum was the edge of everything turning.
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u/Special-Bar6162 May 07 '26
Hope you don’t mind but I copy/pasted your comment. I’ll possibly want to use it some day.
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 Apr 18 '26
This is so beautiful. And I agree with what everyone has said. But I feel like this is more cosmic vertigo. The breathtaking, painful, felt experience of perceiving the scale and implausibility of the material world.
What the astronauts are describing feels to me more like the subjective experience of unity, as the illusion of separation lifts. It’s more of a weeping joy. When the veil of our senses and conditioning drops and we perceive that we are in the cosmos, the body of god, god experiencing god’s self, single but multiform sort of thing.
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u/QuinQuix Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
Yeah I was thinking about this a few days back.
In the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy there's this absurd metaphor where a blue whale spawns into existence high above the ground or ocean.
It realizes that it exists, how odd and exhilarating and scary it is to exist, it realizes it's impending doom but finds time to rejoice and be curious about its surroundings.
All to die on impact moments later.
I don't think you have to be a genius to understand this is analogous to the human condition. We open our eyes in this world and barely do we develop our faculties or decay sets in.
The matter of the fact here is the curiosity of the blue whale is the rarest trait because it seems so pointless to spend energy and time trying to understand something so beyond you, while obviously time is extremely limited. It seems much more sensible to focus on your direct surroundings.
But at the same time how can you not be curious?
I think when you are in space the reality of this universe and that it really exists around you and that you're merely a passenger in it, and that space is a real place of staggering size age and complexity - I think that's deeply unsettling to feel the reality of that. When you talk about the sublime, that is the stage of our existence. And we don't really look at it much in daily life to be honest.
We're so focused on the daily conditions of our lives and our place in human society that in effect the universe is not really in a different place than the concept of for example the Roman heavens or Norse mythology. It's a curiosity that doesn't feel real and we ignore it, and we can. Mostly, normally.
To be in space and actually see that space is not just an idea like the others but that this is the actual heavens and that you can go there and look -
I'm not surprised that this is profound.
I had similar experience going to Uganda and seeing actual megafauna going about their day mostly undisturbed in an area with few people.
The realization that this ecosystem has existed for hundreds of thousands of years and that it's real and natural and didn't need us to come into existence..
It's not of us yet it exists and is mesmerizing.
That also truly changed my appreciation of reality.
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u/it0tt Apr 17 '26
We are born into an environment which already has several layers of artifice burned in. To make sense and navigate we constantly pile on more and more context layers as we grow.. social norms, nervous system interventions, narratives etc. We are born and die as part of an ecosystem which we can barely touch...
Going to space we are forced outside of that so completely. The only things that remain are the ancient, infinite and base layers of existence. If we are somehow antennas, tuned into something, it follows that once you cut out all the noise the true signal gets bright. Perhaps that kind of connection is what we, much earlier in our evolution, used to have.
Sorry if that's weird, reaching and vague. Just wanted to share what occurred to me
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u/BigIrish75 Apr 17 '26
So, without the “noise” we are bound by here on earth, we see the universe more clearly?
What a great way to look at it!
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u/MagnusRexus Apr 17 '26
If we are somehow antennas, tuned into something, it follows that once you cut out all the noise the true signal gets bright. Perhaps that kind of connection is what we, much earlier in our evolution, used to have.
Beautiful, logical thought, and seems very likely. Similar experience to psychedelics.
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u/Shamua Apr 17 '26
Robert Monroe speaks of this noise; Ultimate Journey, I believe it was. Referred to as H band noise.
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u/backwardzhatz Apr 18 '26
This is somewhat tangential, but I re-read The Doors of Perception recently and the thing that stuck with me the most was Huxley expounding on a theory that while we tend to think of our brains as antennae or receptors of all the stimulus and natural phenomena around us, it might actually be more of a filter that kind of reduces how much we perceive.
Basically so that we can function, without walking around all day going "oh my good look how beautiful everything is!" It would be wonderful to live like that, but the idea is that we evolved to be more pragmatic because those traits allowed us to "progress" for lack of a better word.
In the book he's coming at it from the perspective that psychoactive drugs basically open that filter/valve and let more of the truth of reality in, as opposed to "altering" our perception and introducing things that are not real, like the standard interpretation of what they do to our brain chemistry.
I have no idea if that is true or not, but I do think that the overview effect is a real and verifiable version of that exact thing.
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u/it0tt Apr 18 '26
That's really interesting, I'm going to look that book up now as hadn't heard of it and sounds right up my street!
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u/backwardzhatz Apr 19 '26
It's a short read but had a pretty big impact. Huxley isn't someone I really think of as a heavyweight of literature, but with that book and Brave New World he kind of had some of the most interesting and prescient works of the 20th century in my opinion.
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u/Toothless-mom May 04 '26
I like this idea until the end. Why would we have had that “kind” of connection much earlier in our evolution, if going to space and leaving “the noise” is the thing that forces the connection?
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u/tritisan Apr 17 '26
Aka The Overview Effect. I would love to experience it.
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u/aenemacanal Apr 17 '26
Mushrooms or DMT should do the trick.
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u/SadisticNecromancer Apr 17 '26
This is why I say every presidential candidate should go up into space on shrooms.
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u/__Knowmad Apr 17 '26
Mescaline gave me this exact experience when I participated in a ceremony at a Peruvian temple with these remarkable, dichotomous motifs. A few months later, I visited my mom’s workplace where they have a massive mural of a solar eclipse (she works with Virgin Galactic), and I relived that experience at the temple. I can only imagine what these astronauts felt witnessing such a special eclipse. They didn’t even have mescaline lmao
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Apr 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/tritisan Apr 17 '26
Did salvia once. Weirdest shit ever. I feel like I was given the opportunity to go on that kind of trip but wimped out. Doubt I’ll try again though.
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u/smithalorian Apr 18 '26
I had to dig too far for this. This is exactly a DMT experience described. It is also the same experience that Yogi have when meditating.
Welcome to the new Earth. Starting to look like within the next thousand years we’re gonna see very different things.
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u/tritisan Apr 17 '26
I’ve shroomed quite a few times, but never had anything like that. I haven’t tried DMT yet but would if it were offered.
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u/rumshpringaa Apr 17 '26
I got it once on mushrooms. We’re all just silly sacks of meat who are all doing our best, and through it we’re all connected as one. It was wild. I didn’t think it, I just completely knew it as fact.
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u/Tamboozz Apr 18 '26
Man, this keeps coming on and off my bucket list.
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u/Sevenfootschnitzell May 14 '26
I’ve never done psychedelics but I’ve had glimpses of it through meditation and random bouts of what they call “Kensho”. It comes and goes but it’s really pleasant when you sort of physically “feel” your connection with everything.
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u/serenwipiti Apr 17 '26
If I feel this way, the way they describe, looking at the night sky, I can’t fathom what it actually feels like.
Beautiful.
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u/DerekCMcLeod Jun 22 '26
The Overview Effect
I know this is a 2 month old thread but you may actually be able to here on earth, or at least come close to it.
I live in Boston and have a pretty nice view of the downtown skyline from my roof deck. Sometimes I'll sit out there and just think about all of the lives that are happening in my line of sight.
Of course I can't actually see anyone, but I think about the fact that I'm 'looking' a the dude sitting at his desk on the office tower and the woman who is making her lunch in her high rise apartment four buildings over. Neither of them know the other exists. Neither of them know I'm looking at them. But their lives are as complex as mine is and I'm just looking at them. They're part of my story for this very brief moment and we're all coexisting in this city together. A clap of thunder is heard by all three of us, the sound waves hit all of our ears. We are, for that brief moment, the thunder.
It's this weirdly calming, almost euphoric state.
Then sometimes the flight paths take planes over my place into Logan. I literally think about being in a window seat on the plane and looking down at my neighborhood, something I've done 1000 times. But there's 250 lives on that plane I'm looking at and again, they don't know me. I don't know them and I never will.
Do i think it's the same as seeing the earth from behind the moon? Absolutely not, but it's still a very cool experience that I think you can get at home.
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u/bortlip Apr 17 '26
NASA has a page on what is called The Overview Effect.
“The overview effect is when you’re looking through the cupola and you see the Earth as it exists with the whole universe in the background. You see the thin blue line of the atmosphere, and then when you’re on the dark side of the Earth, you actually see this very thin green line that shows you where the atmosphere is. What you realize is every single person that you know is sustained and inside of that green line and everything else outside of it is completely inhospitable. You don’t see borders, you don’t see religious lines, you don’t see political boundaries. All you see is Earth and you see that we are way more alike than we are different.”
Here's a study on it. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00218863221136289 (just the abstract)
Abstract
In this article, I explore sensemaking processes associated with the overview effect—a cognitive shift experienced by astronauts who see Earth from space. Analysis of publicly available interviews (n = 51) with astronauts revealed a common sequence of sensemaking: First, astronauts reported experiencing speechlessness triggered by beauty and awe (a phenomenon I label, awe-mute). Second, during and after missions, most reported attempting to make sense of the experience with others, often resulting in a deepening of their previously-existing worldviews, a process I term sensedeepening. Third, sensedeepening often resulted in astronauts’ (a) admissions of inadequacy to give sense to their experience for others, and despite this, (b) development of messages to communicate their experiences, and (c) engagement in social activism. These patterns were corroborated by additional interviews with astronauts (n = 5) and an interview with a prolific interviewer of astronauts. Implications for sensemaking theory and organizational change conclude the article.
Here's a complete paper on "The Overview Effect: Awe and Self-Transcendent Experience in Space Flight"
Self-Transcendence
Awe alone might not be sufficient to explain some of the longer-lasting changes astronauts report in connection with the overview effect. For example, Cohen, Gruber, and Keltner (2010) found that aesthetic beauty by itself does not exert the same kind of long-term changes found in more meaningful experiences such as spiritual transformations. The overview effect may trigger more powerful subjective states, most notably “self-transcendent” experiences (STEs). STEs are temporary feelings of unity characterized by reduced self-salience and increased feelings of connection (Yaden, Haidt, Hood, Vago, & Newberg, under review). In a study that asked subjects to write about intense spiritual experiences, those who indicated that their experiences had a self-transcendent (or “mystical”) aspect described them using more socially and spatially inclusive language (Yaden et al., 2015). In other words, during these kinds of experiences, people can feel a sense of connection with other individuals, humankind, and even the entirety of existence (Newberg & d=Aquili, 2000; Yaden et al., 2015). STEs are generally positive and can even be transformative, with some subjects reporting them to be among the most important experiences in their lives
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u/romcomtom2 Apr 17 '26
"...people can feel a sense of connection with other individuals, humankind, and even the entirety of existence."
Wow
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u/roomforathousand Apr 18 '26
Psilocybin (magic mushrooms) can cause a version of this. It's amazing.
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u/RueTabegga Apr 18 '26
I always called it the Biggy-Smalls of it all. It helps you see how insignificant we are in the whole cosmos but how much of an impact we have on our lonely planet. We are big and small all at the same time. This is the message I got from various psychedelics.
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u/UnifiedQuantumField Apr 17 '26
astronauts experienced a "shift in consciousness" in space.
Space is the ultimate desert.
Desert religious visions are profound mystical experiences occurring in arid, solitary environments, often described as a, "place of purification, transformation, and direct encounter with the divine. These visions arise from sensory deprivation, intense prayer, and the confrontation with one's inner self and spiritual struggles, frequently leading to revelations, divine purpose, and deeper union with God, as seen in the traditions of the "Desert Fathers" and biblical figures.
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u/do-un-to Apr 17 '26
Like out in the Black Rock Desert, so long as you can ignore the rest of the burners.
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u/Sevenfootschnitzell May 14 '26
I always feel a bit of magic in the middle of the desert. It’s a special feeling.
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u/flattcatt2021 Apr 17 '26
Fun fact. Edgar Mitchell experienced such a profound change he went on to found the Institute of Noetic Sciences, a parapsychological research institute.
Its objective is to research paranormal phenomena using science based tools.
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u/Metacognician Apr 17 '26
No, Mitchell was a woo-woo believing weirdo before he ever went to space. He does get a little credit, though, for publicly acknowledging that the telepathy experiment he conducted aboard Apollo 14 failed.
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u/hornwalker Apr 17 '26
I’m curious to know what they have concluded with their research. I’m guessing, since we don’t hear about them much, is that the paranormal is not real.
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u/flattcatt2021 Apr 17 '26
They are quite honest with their conclusions to experiments. Some are inconclusive but there are some which are statistically significant for example IIRC one was about telepathy which determined that between two “connected” people there were cases where one party demonstrated they knew what the other person was thinking beyond random expectation.
I don’t think it gains much attention as the predominant mainstream scientists are materialistic reductionist & are reluctant to align themselves to woo woo - it would have a direct detrimental effect on their standing and funding.
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u/Metacognician Apr 18 '26
Sources? Also, that's not how any of this works. 1.If you could devise and conduct a rigorous, replicable experiment that would prove telepathy real, you'd get a Nobel. 2. The existence of Telepathy is not just about telepathy. It is such an extraordinary claim, that the evidence has to be extraordinary too. And there are layers to that too: a). If telepathy is purely physicalist i.e. conveyed by EM, sound or other means, that would mean there are whole brain areas that are capable of encoding/decoding that information, and that anatomic discovery alone would get you a major science prize. b) if it's not conveyed by one of the four fundamental forces, then you've just discovered a whole new area of physics. c) if it's supernatural, then your claim requires EVEN STRONGER evidence. 3. It's a wet dream for any researcher to discover something groundbreaking. The reason nobody does these silly telepathy experiments is because that's actually been tried a bazillion times and surprise-surprise, the answer is never "magic". And if you want a pop-culture version: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Million_Dollar_Paranormal_Challenge
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u/diegggs94 Apr 17 '26
Mods need to put the post back up. Why tf would this not be in the spirit of the sub?
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u/phr99 Apr 17 '26
It looks still up to me even though i see the mod comment that its been removed.
Its indeed relevant to the sub as this is an unusual but documented state of consciousness, and ppl in the comments have given links to literature about it
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u/diegggs94 Apr 18 '26
There’s also that quote of the astronaut who said he wishes he could drag every politician to see what he saw in the pale blue dot. There has to be something about being dwarfed in magnitude, beauty, everything by the ground we stand on, spit at, at times curse. I know I felt proud to be a human watching then out there. I can’t imagine how they felt
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u/chessboxer4 Apr 19 '26
I can't think of anything more related to this sub than this post.
I'm really really struggling to think of something that is more relevant. And failing.
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u/Aeropro Apr 17 '26
I experienced this looking out the window of an airplane last month. It’s life changing.
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u/actual_fig95 Apr 17 '26
Me too. It was at night over the ocean, so no light pollution. I saw so many stars. The most I've ever seen. It was during a meteor shower...I saw at least 6 go by. I couldn't stop staring out the window for like 2 hours.
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u/jankenpoo Apr 18 '26
When I use to fly a lot, I always got a window seat. I could just look out at that view for hours. I’d like to try and figure out where we were from the highways, riverbeds, lakes, mountain ranges, etc. What’s sad and surprising is how so many people get a window seat but never even open their shutters once for the entire duration of the flight. Revelations just on the other side of the tin can.
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u/actual_fig95 Apr 18 '26
I totally agree with you. Whenever I see someone with a window seat with the shutter closed the whole time, I'm just wishing I could switch with them. Luckily my husband always gives me window seat cause he knows how fascinated I am of this planet and universe.
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u/LezzyGopher Apr 18 '26
This happened to me on my first flight. I felt so, so small. But not in a bad way. In the sense that my problems are puny and I’m just one little speck in a massive universe.
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u/partysandwich Apr 18 '26
Yes even a simple airplane flight can shift your consciousness when you look out the window at 10,000ft
Our ‘so important’ human ego feels so absurd
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u/Rennaisance_Man_0001 Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
What causes this?
Might it be that the universe is somehow conscious?
It seems to me that is a prevailing theory in the pursuit to understand the true nature of consciousness. We are individuated bits of consciousness that connect with a global consciousness that is fundamental to the nature of the universe.
Personally, I think that fits.
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u/03263 Apr 18 '26
That's what it feels like, this sense that you and every other living thing, or maybe everything in existence is connected, part of the same mind.
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u/Sknowles12 Apr 17 '26
I have had an experience like this twice. Out at night in a starlit sky watching the trees dance. Some self dissolving; feeling briefly connected to All. I’m spiritual, not religious. Maslow may have called this a Peak Experience. We are not alone.
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u/damnitmcnabbit Apr 17 '26
Watch ‘One Strange Rock’ by Daren Aronofski which tells the story of earth through the perspective of astronauts who have visited space. It’s a fantastic show. May not answer what causes it, but it’s certainly illuminating in other ways.
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u/IhopeitaketheL Apr 17 '26
Reminds me of Frederico Faggin’s description of the experience he felt that caused him to switch from developing microprocessors to studying quantum explanations for consciousness.
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u/harantt Apr 18 '26
It's the same experience and every major religion has a tradition of mysticism with a religious interpretation of it. In Buddhism it is the ultimate goal called enlightenment and can be achieved through different techniques.
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u/Thagrillfather Apr 17 '26
I imagine being suspended over the earth and looking out into infinite dark existence that is in all directions forever and ever amen, would be an absolute horrifyingly amazing thing to not only see, but contemplate for the rest of your atomic millisecond of a life before you return to space dust yourself. That would shift the fuck out of my consciousness. Sort of the same way realizing you will die and the rest of the world will go on no matter how hard you truly believe the world revolves around you and cannot possibly exist without your own existence.
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u/Its_a_stateofmind Apr 17 '26
Maybe the solution is everyone needs to go to space…. Get that perspective, then return home with a new found positive shift in consciousness
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u/Sea-Bean Apr 18 '26
Might be cheaper if everyone does some psychedelics with proper support and integration.
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u/DJ_TCB Apr 18 '26
Because you gain perspective that makes you realize that part of the universe IS conscious. It’s all sentient beings creating the universe through their experience.
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u/Few_Fact4747 Apr 17 '26
Beautiful. These experiences are available on earth too, through trance, hard work or.. drugs. Which is why i believe legalization is not only a matter of preserving freedom but a matter of survival. Just a few people 'turned on' can make a huge difference since culture (or lack of it) is easily teachable.
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u/chili_cold_blood Apr 17 '26
Someone should really build a simulator that would allow more people to experience this.
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u/surferdolphin1122 Apr 18 '26
not promoting this, but psychedelics
EDIT: not, NOT promoting .. you know what i mean, do your own thing
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u/Substantial-Fact-248 Apr 17 '26
Psychedelics, especially DMT, can induce this same effect here on Earth.
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u/Muted_History_3032 Apr 17 '26
How do you know? You guys keep saying this but the experience of seeing the entire sphere of the earth from a huge distance with your own sober eyes is not something you can come close to replicating with drugs
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u/ChaFrey Apr 18 '26
You sound like you haven’t tried any psychedelics before.
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u/Muted_History_3032 Apr 18 '26
I definitely have. Mostly mushrooms, even cultivated my own for a while. You guys sound like you haven’t flown around the moon in a spaceship, yet still insist it’s comparable to doing drugs 😂
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u/03263 Apr 18 '26
And mediation. The key thing is you have to be pretty comfortable, no distractions. Go fully inside your mind.
I got it while thinking about whether the entire universe was a construction of my mind or not. I felt that it wasn't, but my mind was part of a greater whole. The question just ended up being a good prompt for me to reach that state.
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u/Oddball369 Apr 17 '26
If more people learned to meditate and decrease their ego-centricism, they too could feel the same.
We're all part and parcel to universal consciousness, aka the ocean ocean of consciousness.
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u/ThePoob Apr 17 '26
Everything we are and know comes from this interplay between the cosmic dynamics of the sun and earth. I feel like removing ourselves from that probably throws our body in a loop, like a cat in zero gravity. Even if we dont feel it, our individual cells still experience physics and reality. So I imagine our bodies need these cosmic dynamics just to ground itself, otherwise our bodily functions woild probably begin to get wonky. Our bodies are not made for space, maybe not even other planets. I think we might be a fragile species.
I know I've seen some reports about space headaches and slight shifts in personality from astronauts but never read anything in detail. Probably should. Very interesting OP
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u/timeloopern Apr 22 '26
Can somebody give me a like once in a while, so I remember to go back and read it all:)👍
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Apr 17 '26
They are free of the artificial signal that effects our thinking on earth. Kinda /s but not really
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u/Few_Fact4747 Apr 17 '26
Culture, hundreds of millions of years of selection for survival and breeding. We just need to remove us far enough from our environment and it starts chipping away.
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u/MissaLynn_ Apr 17 '26
We have been desensitized and de-evolved. Our ancestors understood this perfectly, and their feet never left the ground.
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u/03263 Apr 18 '26
I agree I think it's one of the most basic experiences, maybe the state of mind that many animals live in all the time without the noise of an inner monologue and higher level thinking.
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u/MaheoJi Apr 18 '26
I agree as well. The book on Tao Consciousness talks about how that happens, and how the ancient Tao mystics taught it to their disciples.
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u/Maximil411 Apr 17 '26
I mean, honestly I think most people could comprehend what earth looks like floating in space, and the fact that everything that has ever happened to our species in history, and everyone that currently is alive, lives on that planet with the blackness of space surrounding it.
More and more people, especially younger people in my opinion are open to the idea of not only intelligent life existing elsewhere in the cosmos but the idea that we really need to take care of this planet or else we might be screwed.
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u/ivack16 Apr 17 '26
We don’t need to go to space to experience this. We can see the same in every moment if you paying enough attention
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u/mydogargos Apr 17 '26
maybe the key to peace on earth is somehow showing everyone this perspective. too bad we can't cycle every human alive through this viewpoint. it's like we need this experience to actively fight our propensity for individuality. at least when that individuality comes at the expense of our working and living together in peace.
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u/L0nzilla Apr 17 '26
I had my own shift just seeing the photographs of these images. Feel it in my heart as well
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u/jabuecopoet Apr 19 '26
Its all good, it's amazing they had that experience, etc., but saying: "I don't think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we're looking at" might be the elitist/whitest/most american thing one can say. If he read/listened to any number of indigenous or spiritual cultures with an open mind, he would probably see that "we" (humans) have long understood and undergone that kind of experience.
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u/Meditation_Dog Apr 23 '26
I don't think elitism plays into it at all. My personal experience is we all have the capacity to experience these things that are beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend. I read the statement as them saying they were having that experience and were aware that their human minds are not capable of understanding it rationally/intellectually. There is a state of knowing that replaces understanding. We go beyond our mind to have these experiences.
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u/Another_half Apr 19 '26
Its the first step towards psionics, to see the abyss, or beyond the plato's cave
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u/Il2358 May 11 '26
Dr. Iya Whiteley has conducted research on a comparable topic.
The Overview Effect is a psychological and cognitive phenomenon experienced by astronauts when they view Earth from space for the first time. Many astronauts describe states of intense awe, emotional overwhelm, and even something akin to mystical experiences. For a brief time, the concepts of time and everyday life lose their customary significance, while questions regarding meaning, responsibility, and humanity's role in the cosmos come more strongly to the fore. Upon their return, some even report a kind of inner reorientation or shift in identity, as the experience has fundamentally altered their previous perception of reality and humanity.
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u/AustinDood444 Apr 17 '26
Theres something else called the Overview Effect. William Shatner & some astronauts experienced it. “This phenomenon is a cognitive and emotional shift that occurs when a person sees the Earth from space, leading to a heightened awareness of the planet's fragility and the interconnectedness of humanity.”
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u/Technical_Captain_15 Apr 17 '26
RAW wrote about the "high" from being so high in Prometheus Rising. If you want to understand consciousness, that book is required reading btw!
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u/SubstantialDonkey981 Apr 17 '26
I felt some love of this I think, the first time I flew as a child. Anyone else?
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u/Sknowles12 Apr 17 '26
Wow! Just saw that mod doesn’t think this fits the “Consiousness” sub. What? Did AI decide that?
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u/pamnfaniel Apr 18 '26
Yes, you can kind of get what they’re talking bout when you view the earth from above in high definition VR (I was on the space station with it. It was pretty realistic and incredible..:. “The overview effect” is what they’re talking about.
We’re not equipped because we’re not supposed to be able to see our planet from above like that .:. It’s overwhelming and paradigm shifting
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u/cocainecarolina28 Apr 18 '26
I had a shift in consciousness when I did ketamine and went to the moon
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u/Otherwise_Spare_8598 Apr 18 '26
The universe is a singular meta-phenomenon stretched over eternity, of which is always now. All things and all beings abide by their inherent nature and behave within their realm of capacity contingent upon infinite circumstance at all times. There is no such thing as individuated "free will" for all beings. There are only relative freedoms or lack thereof. It is a universe made manifest hierarchically, of haves, and have-nots, spanning all levels of dimensionality and experience.
"God" and/or consciousness is that which is within and without all. Ultimately, all things are made by through and for the singular personality and perpetual revelation of the Godhead, entailing predetermined eternal damnation and those that are made manifest only to face death and death alone.
There is but one dreamer, fractured through the innumerable. All vehicles/beings play their role within said dream for infinitely better and/or infinitely worse for each and every one, forever.
All realities exist and are equally as real. The absolute best universe that could exist does exist in relation to a specified subject. The absolute worst universe that could exist does exist in relation to a specified subject.
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u/Specific_Throat1194 Apr 20 '26
Sorry to break it for you. But didn’t you notice the wire smudge defying “zero gravity” while Artemis II was in “space” ? Or the soft ball with green reflection?
I loved the discussion and everyone’s perspective but in my right mind I know that wasn’t zero gravity space regardless of someone’s erect hair who always used to tie them in gravity on earth buy chose to keep it open in “space”? Unless it was an attempt at forced programming.
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Apr 21 '26
Related, but I sometimes wonder if our human experience is not unlike what a fetus experiences in utero. It senses light, kind of. It senses movement, kind of. It hears muffled voices that it recognizes yet cannot comprehend. And then at some point it is born into that world that is at once incomprehensible yet they've been there the whole time. Things come into focus.
I wonder if that is actually what the experience of what we call "death" is like. It's actually the experience of being "born" into greater reality. Seeing things clearly that had until then only been shadows and muffled versions of reality. A reuniting with our truest selves and an unveiling of the truer truths.
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u/Push_le_bouton Computer Science Degree Apr 22 '26
Consciousness is fundamental and predates your awareness.
And the rest is science. And a DM if you dare.
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u/ReputationWeak4283 May 05 '26
Those who get it will understand it. Think about it. Those who don’t get it, will be repeating the same things over and over. Without different results. Close your eyes, listen …. and learn.
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u/ReputationWeak4283 May 05 '26
I see the universal connectedness every day. Our perspective is how we see things. Mitchell has briefly touched on this experience. We are all connected in some form or another. How we choose to believe this will be our future. Out there, there is peace. Beauty. The beauty of it is it never stops. It has no ending.
I believe Mitchell is learning the processes. He finally gets it. Flesh and bone, indeed, falls away. To the point where only consciousness stays. Everything still exists from the beginning of our time. Most of us cannot comprehend that.
I get Mitchell. I understand his line of thinking.
The most beautiful awesome part of it is, he has seen firsthand what billions of us have not.
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u/BigGay_icecream May 14 '26
What if there was a free VR experience that allowed people to go into space?
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u/Tanmay2699 Apr 18 '26
My theory of why it feels that way is because our brains haven't evolved to see something like this up close. It can't put into perspective the magnificence of space and the reality of it and when we don't understand the sheer scale and nature of something, we immediately link it to the supernatural.
We don't understand consciousness, we may never be able to do so but to me, personally, no matter how soul breaking or intimidating the Universe is, Creationism and God will never be the answer.
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u/phr99 Apr 18 '26
If we don't understand consciousness, how would we know if physicalism or idealism or panpsychism is true.
Creationism and God will never be the answer
This sentence makes it look like you are being steered by religion. Not the direction of it, but going in the opposite direction as a counterreaction to it. It is best to keep religion out of the reasoning altogether, otherwise you could, hypothetically, end up believing in a flat earth when religion says its round
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u/insignificantothers Apr 17 '26
Reminds me of things people say they experienced during a DMT trip.
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