Does seeing the planet from space really cause some type of change in people? This article from The Daily Galaxy suggests that some sort of unknown change comes over all people who see the world from space, causing them to develop a feeling of “oneness” with the rest of the universe. Ed Mitchell, an Apollo 14 astronaut, described the feeling as being “engulfed by a profound sense of universal connectedness”.

Now, chances are Ed Mitchell and the other astronauts who experienced this “Overview Effect” were experiencing a real effect, and it most likely was a very emotional experience for them. However, it is a huge jump to then go ahead and claim that this feeling is a result of a profound change that came over these people. All of the effects outlined in this article could be explained by a profoundly moving emotional experience. The idea that this feeling is instead caused by some type of transcendent experience of connection with the rest of the universe is a giant leap in reasoning.

After decades of study and contemplation about his experience, Ed Mitchell believes that the feeling of “oneness” with the Universe that he and others have experienced is a consequence of little understood quantum physics.

Seriously, quantum physics? I can understand people blaming unexplained phenomenon on quantum physics a decade ago, but nowadays even high school students should have a basic grasp of quantum physics. If he’s going to blame this unexplained phenomenon on some quirk of science, he should get with the times.

The article quickly goes downhill from there.

This is done with Faraday cages. It’s shown that this information at this deep level, at the quantum level, can transcend electromagnetic theory. And, now we’re getting into quantum physics and we don’t want to go there at this point. But it’s a very fundamental notion that awareness is at the very basis of things.”

The verdict? This is just another example of Occam’s razor being tossed out the window in favour of a cool sounding story. Seeing the world from orbit is most likely a beautiful, and deeply moving experience. We don’t have to look to quantum physics to understand why this has such a profound effect on people who get to experience it.

Also, if you think about it, observing the entire planet should only result in a feeling of oneness with the planet — to feel at one with the universe, you should have to observe the entire universe at once.

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