“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 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. “From space, the planet is a constantly changing masterpiece and the sheer beauty is absolutely breathtaking.
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. 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. “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.” “For me it was an epiphany in slow motion,” said Ron Garan, a former Nasa astronaut who is not involved in the trial. From space, the planet is a constantly changing masterpiece and the sheer beauty is absolutely breathtaking Ron Garan 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. On seeing the whole planet in the blackness of space, national borders melt away, and we all become, primarily, citizens of Earth. Not all astronauts experience the Overview effect, but those who do describe a number of factors that appear to fuel the phenomenon. “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. “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. 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. Pratscher does not expect everyone who steps into the tank wearing a VR headset to emerge having experienced the Overview effect.
The persistence of any effects will be assessed after one week and again a month later.
The overview effect series#
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 overview effect full#
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. 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. 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.
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