How Meditation Replicates the Astronauts' Overview Effect

"When astronauts look back at Earth from space, they often describe an experience so profound that it permanently alters how they perceive life. Known as the "overview effect," this shift in consciousness reveals our planet not as a compilation of nations divided by artificial borders. Instead, Earth appears as an awe-inspiring, fragile, blue-green orb, hurtling through the infinite dark. The overview effect reported by astronauts has lessons for those of us on Earth."

"Yet we do not need to travel to space to experience this sense of connection and responsibility. The practice of meditation can trigger a similar psychological state to that found in the overview effect. The term was first coined by space philosopher Frank White in The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution (1987). He interviewed dozens of astronauts, who all described an overwhelming sense of unity, beauty, and vulnerability when viewing Earth from orbit."

"For example, Edgar Mitchell said, "You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it." From that altitude, the borders that feel real in our minds, and define our politics, vanish. What emerges is not a fragmented network of parts, but a seamless whole."

Astronauts frequently report an experience called the overview effect, a profound and permanent shift in perception that reveals Earth as an interconnected, fragile blue-green orb rather than a collection of divided nations. From orbit, political borders fade and a sense of global unity, responsibility, and planetary stewardship emerges. The overview effect involves psychological downgrading of self and national identity and recalibration toward collective care. The term was coined by Frank White, who based it on interviews with astronauts. Practicing meditation can induce similar altered mind states, and neuroscience links those states with shifts in awareness and connectedness.

Read at Psychology Today