You can only imagine what goes through an astronaut’s mind while they have a bird’s eye view of our planet from space. For former NASA astronaut Ron Garan, 62, the primary thought was a ‘sobering realization’ that we Earthlings are ‘living a lie’.
And no, it’s not that the Flat Earth theorists were right. It’s something much more profound.
Imagine being in Garan’s spacesuit, with an uninterrupted view of Earth, experiencing what’s known as the ‘overview effect’. This term describes the cognitive shift many astronauts feel when looking at Earth from space—a sense of awe with self-transcendent qualities. This phenomenon can trigger unexpected and overwhelming emotions for those brave enough to venture into space.
Garan experienced this during his 178 days in space, traveling over 71 million miles in 2,842 orbits during his NASA career. From the International Space Station (ISS), he drew some intriguing conclusions about our way of life.
Speaking to Big Think, the New Yorker said he realized that the things most humans worry about aren’t significant after all. Instead, we should be more concerned about global warming, deforestation, and biodiversity loss.
Describing his observations, Garan explained: “When I looked out the window of the International Space Station, I saw the paparazzi-like flashes of lightning storms, I saw dancing curtains of auroras that seemed so close it was as if we could reach out and touch them. And I saw the unbelievable thinness of our planet’s atmosphere. In that moment, I was hit with the sobering realization that that paper-thin layer keeps every living thing on our planet alive.
“I saw an iridescent biosphere teeming with life. I didn’t see the economy. But since our human-made systems treat everything, including the very life-support systems of our planet, as the wholly owned subsidiary of the global economy, it’s obvious from the vantage point of space that we’re living a lie.”
Garan continued, “We need to move from thinking economy, society, planet to planet, society, economy. That’s when we’re going to continue our evolutionary process. There’s this light bulb that pops up where they realize how interconnected and interdependent we all are.”
“We’re not going to have peace on Earth until we recognize the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality,” Garan added. He isn’t alone in this thought process.
Astronaut Michael Collins, who flew on Apollo 11, said he was stunned at how ‘fragile’ and ‘tiny’ Earth looked. Similarly, Apollo 14’s Edgar Mitchell said the experience gave him an ‘explosion of awareness’.
It sounds like Elon Musk needs to get that SpaceX rocket ready so we can all see this for ourselves.
