Scientists
attempt to recreate 'Overview effect' from Earth
Researchers
aim to recreate intense emotional experience astronauts reported on seeing
Earth from space for the first time
Ian Sample
@iansample
Thu 26 Dec
2019 09.00 GMT
‘An instant
global consciousness’: the Earth viewed from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Astronauts have reported an intense feeling upon seeing Earth from space, known
as the ‘Overview effect’. Photograph: Getty Images
The
spectacle of Earth suspended in space was so overwhelming for Edgar Mitchell
that the Apollo 14 astronaut and sixth man on the moon wanted to grab
politicians by the scruff of the neck and drag them into space to witness the
view.
Such
drastic measures may not be necessary, however. Scientists are about to welcome
the first participants on an unprecedented clinical trial that aims to
reproduce the intense emotional experience, known as the “Overview effect”,
from the comfort of a health spa.
If the
trial goes well, what led Mitchell to develop “an instant global consciousness”
and a profound connection to Earth and its people could be recreated with
nothing more than a flotation tank, a half tonne of Epsom salts, and a
waterproof virtual reality (VR) headset.
“There’s a
lot of division and polarisation and disconnection between people,” said Steven
Pratscher, a psychologist and principal investigator on the trial at the
University of Missouri. “We’d like to see if we can recreate the Overview
effect on Earth to have an impact on those issues.”
Pratscher
will recruit about 100 volunteers who are willing to don the VR headset and
clamber into a dark, salt-laden flotation tank at the city’s Clarity Float spa.
The silence and buoyancy will mimic the sensation of floating in space, while
the VR headset plays high-definition, 360 degree immersive video recorded by
the Silicon Valley startup, SpaceVR.
The
volunteers will be randomly assigned to have either the full flotation tank VR
experience, to float without VR, or have VR while lying on a bed. Before and
after their one-hour session, the participants will complete a series of
questionnaires to assess whether they had any mystical experiences, felt more
connected to others, or had what psychologists call an “emotional breakthrough”
moment. The persistence of any effects will be assessed after one week and
again a month later.
Pratscher
does not expect everyone who steps into the tank wearing a VR headset to emerge
having experienced the Overview effect. But the experiment will reveal what, if
anything, people do experience when their senses are fooled into believing they
are looking down on Earth from space.
“It may be
able to elicit, to some degree, these mystical experiences, and I’m curious to
see if they have persisting effects, for example on people’s values and
behaviours, especially with respect to how people view the Earth and the
environment, and the things they do that may impact the environment,” Pratscher
said.
“We’re
causing potentially irreversible impact on the Earth, so hopefully it will wake
people up to see that there are more things we can do to help save the planet,
protect the environment, and live in more harmony,” he added.
Not all
astronauts experience the Overview effect, but those who do describe a number
of factors that appear to fuel the phenomenon. On seeing the whole planet in
the blackness of space, national borders melt away, and we all become,
primarily, citizens of Earth. Many astronauts are struck by the thinness of the
atmosphere, and the stunning beauty of the planet, and feel compelled to
protect it when they return.
From
space, the planet is a constantly changing masterpiece and the sheer beauty is
absolutely breathtaking
Ron Garan
“For me it
was an epiphany in slow motion,” said Ron Garan, a former Nasa astronaut who is
not involved in the trial. “It’s a profound sense of empathy, a profound sense
of community, and a willingness to forgo immediate gratification and take a
more multi-generational outlook on progress.”
Garan, a
former fighter pilot, flew on space shuttle Discovery in 2008 and spent two
weeks working on the construction of the International Space Station. The trip
created a longing to go back and in 2011 he launched onboard a Soyuz rocket on
a six-month mission to the space station.
“From space, the planet is a constantly
changing masterpiece and the sheer beauty is absolutely breathtaking. It looks
like a shining jewel and you realise that it’s home to everyone who ever lived
and everyone who ever will be,” he said. “But another thing that hit me was a sobering
contradiction between the beauty of our planet and the unfortunate realities of
life on our planet. It filled me with a sense of injustice. It infuriated me.”
On his
return, Garan wrote The Orbital Perspective, a book about the call to action he
felt after experiencing the Overview effect. It is about seeing the big
picture, appreciating what needs to be done, and cracking on with solutions. He
believes it might be possible to at least produce what he calls an “aha” moment
with VR on Earth.
“You can be
sat up there in orbit thinking about this contradiction and then realise you’re
sitting on the answer. The answer is that humans, when they set aside their
differences and work together, can do anything.
“You want
people to have that shift in perspective, to think planetary. You want them to
come out and solve problems in context of the real world in its entirety, to
solve multi-generational problems, not slap band aids on things,” he said.
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