Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: I'm Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And uh, you know, Julie,
Speaker 1: I was just thinking the other day about how we're
Speaker 1: just approaching fifty years of humans going into the space.
Speaker 1: Like I think it's like like the next April, I
Speaker 1: think is the is when we'll reach that point fifty
Speaker 1: years of humans blasting up on the the tip of
Speaker 1: control explosions, uh, into orbit, hanging out in microgravity and
Speaker 1: then coming back and uh and and I in in
Speaker 1: researching what we're gonna talk about today, I was I
Speaker 1: was thinking, what if everybody who had come back from
Speaker 1: space came back like just completely changed in terms of
Speaker 1: their their their mental um, you know, outlook on life
Speaker 1: and the universe um to the point where it was
Speaker 1: just like you had space people returning to the planet. Well,
Speaker 1: and you know my question is, aren't they completely changed?
Speaker 1: I mean, wouldn't they just be inherently changed from that experience? Well,
Speaker 1: at some level, I think they generally are. I mean
Speaker 1: you hear people talk about like I was talking to
Speaker 1: one of the Virgin Galactic dudes about the whole cell
Speaker 1: on Virgin Galactic, which, of course Virgin Galactic is the
Speaker 1: space tourist thing that's gonna eventually start here Richard Branson's
Speaker 1: brain child. Yeah, I like how you just drop it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just talking to like the versus Ealactic you know,
Speaker 1: well not I should out, I should Yeah. I was
Speaker 1: talking about my seat on the flight, all right. I
Speaker 1: was not talking to Richard, just one of Richard alright,
Speaker 1: just to clarify, Yeah, but it was for an article.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like we weren't hanging out, you know. But
Speaker 1: but but I was asking him, like, you know about
Speaker 1: the cell of you know, shooting people into space and
Speaker 1: whether the what they were they were offering was gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, really please people or if people would be like,
Speaker 1: whoa what was that? That was whack? I was told
Speaker 1: I was going to have a little more of a
Speaker 1: space experience there, but these seats are awful. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: he was like, no, it's gonna it's gonna deliver because
Speaker 1: people go into space, and when they go into space,
Speaker 1: that's something they talk about for the rest of their lives,
Speaker 1: Like it becomes this defining experience, right finding moment of
Speaker 1: their their life story. So yeah, so I think on
Speaker 1: one level, yes, it does change people. But but the
Speaker 1: big thing we're going to talk about today is the
Speaker 1: is this thing called the overview effect, which entails or
Speaker 1: at least at least it implies that there are greater
Speaker 1: changes going on in uh in at least human outlook. Right.
Speaker 1: And this is a relatively new term, right, the overview effect. Right.
Speaker 1: It was described by Frank White, I believe, and he
Speaker 1: was talking about this this um common thread that runs
Speaker 1: through astronauts and their experience when they're out in space
Speaker 1: and they just kind of look over their shoulder or
Speaker 1: maybe they're making a repair or something, or they're space walking, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, just just as you would be doing on
Speaker 1: the Moon, and they happen to look over at Earth
Speaker 1: and then they're just blown away in this sense of euphoria. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm picturing like a double take. You know. It's like alright,
Speaker 1: preparing repairing the moon buggy, repairing the Moon buggy, and
Speaker 1: you're sort of glancing like whoa, and then it just
Speaker 1: all sinks in right, Right, And for a couple of
Speaker 1: these astronauts has been completely life changing. Yeah, And and
Speaker 1: it's made them reconsider humanity, our role um on the
Speaker 1: Earth and in the universe, and some interesting things have
Speaker 1: come out of that. Yeah, there's a if you back
Speaker 1: up a little bit too, uh to the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 1: early nineteen fifties even uh, they had you had psychologists
Speaker 1: studying aviation pilots, and they had something already called the
Speaker 1: breakaway effect and and the and this was just generally
Speaker 1: solo pilots flying at high altitudes having this experience where
Speaker 1: they're they're just like like, whoa, they feel the strange
Speaker 1: feeling of detachment from the Earth. Um, do you know,
Speaker 1: Like I said, generally during solo missions, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of this spiritual sensation. Yeah. Well, and I think um
Speaker 1: to me that the most interesting part of this is
Speaker 1: astronaut edgar Mitchell, and he described his his feelings about
Speaker 1: the experience, which are really beautiful if you think about it.
Speaker 1: He said that he was basically overwhelmed by the experience.
Speaker 1: He became profoundly aware that each and every atom in
Speaker 1: the universe was connected in some way, and on seeing
Speaker 1: Earth from space, he had an understanding that all humans, animals,
Speaker 1: and systems were part of the same thing, a synergistic whole.
Speaker 1: It was an interconnected euphoria. Wow. Yeah, interconnected euphoria sounds
Speaker 1: that sounds pretty intense. Yeah, So you look at that
Speaker 1: experience and you start to consider it, and as scientists
Speaker 1: and neuroscientists are starting to look at it, and and
Speaker 1: you think, Okay, well, what happened right before they had
Speaker 1: that Eufork experience? What are what are astronauts spacewalker? What
Speaker 1: are these people experiencing, you know, proceeding that very moment,
Speaker 1: like even the just the pilots into an airplanes that
Speaker 1: aren't even going into space and there you're probably pulling
Speaker 1: some serious g s and then you're you're looking out
Speaker 1: at you know, perhaps the even the curvature of the
Speaker 1: Earth or something. And I mean even those guys were
Speaker 1: like they were using language like I felt like a god,
Speaker 1: or I felt like I was king of the Earth,
Speaker 1: or even this weird thing where they were like I
Speaker 1: wanted to just fly on forever. I didn't care if
Speaker 1: there was any fuel, you know. So so, but then
Speaker 1: taking it to the they had like a Thumma and
Speaker 1: Louise moment. Yeah, yeah, where they just want to just
Speaker 1: drive off the cliff of the universe, right off the cliff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So so when you're going into space, though, it's it's
Speaker 1: that that more complicated a journey, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: a it's a lot more effort to actually, um leave
Speaker 1: the atmosphere. So so yeah, the experiences of getting there
Speaker 1: are definitely a little more taxing. Yeah. So, I mean
Speaker 1: you have written about this before in a blog post
Speaker 1: of about how being out in space kind of makes
Speaker 1: you a little bit cranky. Yeah, and you talked about
Speaker 1: stage one. Yeah. Stage one is, uh is a pretty
Speaker 1: cool well, I mean they're all kind of cool and
Speaker 1: kind of frightening. Um but but stage stage one is
Speaker 1: basically like a twenty six drop in sleep efficiency, greater
Speaker 1: reduced rapid eye movement and uh. And and essentially you
Speaker 1: have dream deprivation. So you start feeling uncomfortable. You start
Speaker 1: feeling sluggish in your work. You know, it's like if
Speaker 1: you stay up all night and you know, pulling all night,
Speaker 1: or then try to go to work the next day,
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna feel a little slow. You you
Speaker 1: may feel you know, a little cranky even and uh,
Speaker 1: it's like the beginning of a road trip. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: plus you're in space now, where suddenly your sense of
Speaker 1: night and day is totally screwed up. Sleeping is a
Speaker 1: different ordeal. Your stomachs all, you know, messed up. You're
Speaker 1: having to take You're probably having to take a little
Speaker 1: medication here and there to to regulate what's night and
Speaker 1: what's day. Right, you're like the Elvis of the cosmos. Yeah,
Speaker 1: exactly on your space toilet do you hopefully get off of? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so basically you're just sort of trying to acclimate
Speaker 1: to the atmosphere you're in, the environment, you're in, the
Speaker 1: people you're with. And then stage two that's sort of
Speaker 1: like the honeymoon period, right. Yeah, Generally it's about six
Speaker 1: weeks into a mission and you hit your stride um
Speaker 1: and uh and and you you're generally gonna have six
Speaker 1: additional weeks of having it all figured out. You got it,
Speaker 1: you know, you got your patterns down. Your stomach, I
Speaker 1: guess has has settled out a little and is not
Speaker 1: going crazy at every little thing. You're you know, you
Speaker 1: figured out that the most efficient way to go to
Speaker 1: the restroom or I don't know, maybe you're you're still
Speaker 1: in the mode where you can hold it. I don't
Speaker 1: know how how long, Um, you know, a human can
Speaker 1: actually um hold out. But if if you really wanted to,
Speaker 1: maybe twelve twelve weeks, I don't know, Yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but that would be uncomfortable. I would say, that'd make
Speaker 1: me cranky. And then stage three you start kind of
Speaker 1: sniping with each other. Right, the honeymoon's over. Your your
Speaker 1: crew members, your fellow crew members are driving you nuts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is like I think like our five of a
Speaker 1: of a terrestrial uh car trip of road trip, you know,
Speaker 1: where suddenly everybody's a little bit cramped up a little
Speaker 1: too long here, you're getting a little a little short
Speaker 1: with everyone, right, you want to listen to your music. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And a lot of this they say is linked to
Speaker 1: boredom and isolation obviously, you know. And but some of
Speaker 1: the stuff was really interesting. They said that some of
Speaker 1: the studies I was looking at, they said that you
Speaker 1: could you'd have you know, increased sensitivity to loud noises,
Speaker 1: changes in musical preference. So I guess suddenly, like you're
Speaker 1: looking at your iPod, It's like, what was I thinking
Speaker 1: bringing all this a C D C up here? All
Speaker 1: I want to do is listen to pure moods. And
Speaker 1: you're like yeah, yeah, so this is I mean, this
Speaker 1: is a great reason to make sure that your MP
Speaker 1: three players loaded down. Like, don't don't just put on
Speaker 1: all the rock and music you're gonna need for those
Speaker 1: first twelve weeks. Uh, you know, you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: be prepared for the for maybe a little calm or
Speaker 1: listening later on, ye bring some back up. And then
Speaker 1: you've got stage four right so and and by the way,
Speaker 1: so just to recap it, you've got fatigued stress, you're
Speaker 1: feeling a little bit lonely, sensory deprivation, you've got some
Speaker 1: bone mass loss going on, right, Um, poor oxygen at
Speaker 1: at certain times, yes, they're they're you know, they have
Speaker 1: sensors to regulate that. But you're you're probably countering some
Speaker 1: some poor oxygen from time to time. You're also you
Speaker 1: can only clean yourself. So, I mean, I don't know
Speaker 1: about the rest of you people out there, but if like,
Speaker 1: camping for me is kind of an ordeal because if
Speaker 1: I go like a day without taking a shower, I
Speaker 1: just feel like I'm doing something wrong. Really. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: in the summer, I'll take two or three if I
Speaker 1: can get away with it in a day. I know,
Speaker 1: that's not good for my skin. But man, there's nothing
Speaker 1: like a shower to like just change your outlook on life.
Speaker 1: I guess that means I would be well suited to
Speaker 1: space travel. I don't mind the funk. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like it's it's a morning to others. Well, that's
Speaker 1: the thing. It's so you're gonna have how you know,
Speaker 1: a number of people in a in a very enclosed environment,
Speaker 1: all using their funk as a warning to see this
Speaker 1: is why this might be ideal for me, idea well
Speaker 1: solo mission maybe yeah, okay, yeah, I don't know, you're right,
Speaker 1: but so all these things are happening and uh and
Speaker 1: then I kind of look at what stage four as
Speaker 1: sort of the extreme teenage mode where you just get
Speaker 1: super cranky because you know that the thing is going
Speaker 1: to come to a close pretty soon. But is this
Speaker 1: also when euphoria might set in? Yeah, this is when
Speaker 1: you start getting this uh this one final symptom, and
Speaker 1: it is quote prevailing feelings of euphoria. This is uh,
Speaker 1: this this is you know, we're getting into the into
Speaker 1: the overview effect territory here. This is linked to multiple
Speaker 1: accounts from astronauts of of how their their mental state
Speaker 1: is gone throughout a mission because you know NASA, UM,
Speaker 1: you know any of these space programs that they're very
Speaker 1: interested in the mental shape of their their astronauts before, during,
Speaker 1: and after a trip. And so this is an established
Speaker 1: pattern right here. So I think that's interesting to know
Speaker 1: that you have to undergo all these different, uh see
Speaker 1: changes in yourself before you get to experience you for you.
Speaker 1: I think that guess that's a clue. Yeah, it's kind
Speaker 1: of like, um, my wife and I often will try
Speaker 1: and make this a Friday evening relaxation yoga thing, and
Speaker 1: uh and it's generally I'm just exceedingly cranky when I
Speaker 1: get there because I've just got just gotten home from working,
Speaker 1: you know, and she's just gotten home, and we're putting
Speaker 1: off having dinner till after yoga. So we're maybe a
Speaker 1: little up. What I think is is known in scientific
Speaker 1: circles as angry. This is when you're both hungry. You're
Speaker 1: you're angry, but it's due to hunger issues, all right,
Speaker 1: your blood sugar levels are not. Yeah, so we're a
Speaker 1: little angry. We just you know, we've just been running
Speaker 1: NonStop and now we're at yoga and you know, we
Speaker 1: get in there and granted is you know, some calming
Speaker 1: music and all, but then it's you know, start getting
Speaker 1: into uncomfortable poses and and then it just makes me crankier.
Speaker 1: And then there's a karate uh lesson going on in
Speaker 1: the room next to it, so it's like I can't
Speaker 1: relax with are you going on next door? But then
Speaker 1: eventually at the very end after all this like karate
Speaker 1: and and and uh and yoga, it's like we start
Speaker 1: doing the relaxation mode, like I guess like an hour
Speaker 1: and a half end, and then then you can actually relax,
Speaker 1: so I kind of get that impression from from going
Speaker 1: into space. At the long end of this arduous process,
Speaker 1: suddenly all this in insight starts happening. So it's sort
Speaker 1: of like a release. Yes, is your hypothesis well sort
Speaker 1: of sort of my hypotheis yeah, yeah, no, I can
Speaker 1: see that. Yeah, but like yes, a NASA reports they
Speaker 1: document this, and they refer to this stuff feeling as
Speaker 1: quote is giving one quote new insights into the meaning
Speaker 1: of life and the unity of mankind, right, and that
Speaker 1: those are the implications that some people are trying to
Speaker 1: apply to humanity as a whole. In a certain way,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about a little bit. But um, I
Speaker 1: think that we want to look maybe a little bit
Speaker 1: more at this feeling of euphoria and question a little
Speaker 1: bit more, especially since you've already kind of talked about
Speaker 1: this this release aspect of it and the fact that
Speaker 1: it is a pattern that you know, it happens after
Speaker 1: the following steps. So you've got to wonder if if
Speaker 1: the euphoric feeling that they're experiencing isn't necessarily something from
Speaker 1: beyond them, which is something usually the case that they
Speaker 1: feel like this is um, not God so much, but
Speaker 1: it's not a force outside of themselves that's that's acting
Speaker 1: on them, is the general impression that I get. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you've got to kind of wonder if if this
Speaker 1: isn't coming from inside um, if you look at their
Speaker 1: brain as it changed a little bit, Um, are they
Speaker 1: having this experience because of all those different conditions that
Speaker 1: we talked about. Yeah, Like, like one thing that that
Speaker 1: I found out when I was researching this is that
Speaker 1: if you go you know, it's like spaces travel. You know,
Speaker 1: when you go into space, you're traveling into an extreme environment,
Speaker 1: a very hostile environment, one where humans cannot really live
Speaker 1: unless they bring a little encapsulations of their own environment
Speaker 1: up with them. The same is true of the deep ocean,
Speaker 1: where we have two different um um effects going on.
Speaker 1: There's there's one effect called the rapture of the deep,
Speaker 1: also more commonly known I guess as nitrogen narcosis, and
Speaker 1: this starts hitting people out around a hundred feet below
Speaker 1: sea level. It's also known as the Martini effect because
Speaker 1: the idea is that you start feeling the effects of
Speaker 1: one drink for every thirty three feet below sixty five feet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's like it's been described as like as
Speaker 1: a as a beer buzz that you experience UM. And
Speaker 1: then another deep sea um condition that is often encountered
Speaker 1: or occasional encountered anyway, is a hydrogen narcosis. And this
Speaker 1: occurs if you in some people, if you hit a
Speaker 1: thousand feet below sea level four five minutes or more.
Speaker 1: And with this you can get hallucinations, disorientation, confusion, UM
Speaker 1: and and again these are these are very much you know,
Speaker 1: due to physiological conditions, right, so it could have it
Speaker 1: could be a neurological event, right. Brown University for instance,
Speaker 1: had a they've connected a four year study where They
Speaker 1: gauge the possible effects of thin air on astronauts by
Speaker 1: studying climbers who are ascending Mount Everest, which Mount Everest
Speaker 1: is another one of these conditions, these situations where you're
Speaker 1: you're entering a dangerous and extreme environment that people really,
Speaker 1: you know, nobody, but healthwise nobody should really go to
Speaker 1: the top of Mount Everest. It's it's it's not not
Speaker 1: a good place. When you've been you're sharp, and you've
Speaker 1: been in an environment and you've been doing it as
Speaker 1: a young child, and you you've been lugging up like
Speaker 1: Imax cameras your whole life, and and you know, all
Speaker 1: sorts of stuff so that some you know, some American
Speaker 1: dude from Vermont can stand on the top of the
Speaker 1: mountain and pretend he did it all himself and then
Speaker 1: he's like carrying me down. I can't breathe, but get
Speaker 1: the picture hurried. But they found that low oxygen environments
Speaker 1: can damage both the brains uh uh. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say this completely wrong. If your glaubus palladis, which control
Speaker 1: subconscious voluntary movements, um and uh and even the hit
Speaker 1: the hippocampus. So the climbers in the study exhibited ended
Speaker 1: up exhibiting decreased UM cognitive capacity, UM sentence comprehension fell
Speaker 1: off during the ascent, and that one climber, noted in
Speaker 1: the two thousand four report um even fell to his
Speaker 1: death two days after being advised of his condition. So
Speaker 1: again it's like suddenly you're you know, your voluntary your
Speaker 1: subconscious voluntary movements are taking a hit. Not an ideal
Speaker 1: situation while you're climbing Mount Everest, not for you want
Speaker 1: to be in the old Martin game. And then there
Speaker 1: was a two thousand and eight study in the European
Speaker 1: Journal of Neurology and they concluded that extremely high altitude
Speaker 1: exposures can permanently damage brain regions involved in motor activity.
Speaker 1: So so you know, based based on these studies, um,
Speaker 1: you know, people in NASA, E, S A, etcetera. Are
Speaker 1: really into the idea of having and of keeping these
Speaker 1: uh you know, atmospheric monitors to keep an eye on
Speaker 1: oxygen levels. Because just as you don't want decreased subconscious
Speaker 1: voluntary movements, uh while you're climbing a mountain, you also
Speaker 1: don't want it like while you're on a spacewalk or
Speaker 1: while you're trying to like, you know, do some experiment
Speaker 1: about tiny screws, right, and you also don't want people
Speaker 1: to go nuts up there too. So I'm sure that
Speaker 1: they've got invested interest in making sure that everybody is
Speaker 1: psychologically safe and um, in fact, don't they have some
Speaker 1: sort of virtual psychologist program? Yeah? Well yeah, they've been
Speaker 1: working on it is because they would really like if
Speaker 1: you've seen the movie Moon, I don't know if you
Speaker 1: haven't seen that, Okay, well, the movie Moon, which are
Speaker 1: Sam Rockwell, has this this robot computer voiced by Kevin
Speaker 1: Spacey that kind of checks in with him and sees
Speaker 1: how and you know, finds out how he's doing emotionally
Speaker 1: and mentally throughout the picture. And that's exactly the kind
Speaker 1: of thing NASA has been looking at, h and it
Speaker 1: would it would it would basically be kind of like
Speaker 1: you know these little personality tests you take online. It'd
Speaker 1: be kind of like that you take that every few days,
Speaker 1: and then the computer monitors you to see if you're
Speaker 1: starting to exhibit signs of craziness. Okay, I can't help
Speaker 1: think of like two thousand and one and like having
Speaker 1: how's your's your psychologist? You know, hopefully that wouldn't happen.
Speaker 1: I'm sure hopefully the computer would not go crazy, yeah
Speaker 1: and start just messing with you. You're enough feelings so great? Um? Okay,
Speaker 1: So I think all of these things are kind of
Speaker 1: spelling out something, um about maybe it being more of
Speaker 1: an internal thing, even though the hopes are that it
Speaker 1: would be this Eufork feeling might be some sort of
Speaker 1: universal truth about our unitedness as humanity. Not so eloquently,
Speaker 1: but you know what I'm saying. I think on one level,
Speaker 1: there's often tendency to to equate it more with you
Speaker 1: just for spiritual awakening. But I think if we've examined here,
Speaker 1: there's definitely a biological side to it, the end of
Speaker 1: a grueling trip in an extreme environment, possibly some oxygen
Speaker 1: issues going on. And then there's just the there's just
Speaker 1: the blatant fact it's easy to overlook. Here you're in
Speaker 1: space looking at the Earth. This is it's going to
Speaker 1: mess with you. Yeah, it's an incredible experience by all accounts, right,
Speaker 1: it's not. It's something that you can't really comprehend, right,
Speaker 1: Like what that's outside of our understanding? Right? Like like
Speaker 1: you yourself, have you ever encountered, like just seen a sight,
Speaker 1: uh you know, be it a you know, a breath
Speaker 1: taking vista or you know, or something in the sky
Speaker 1: that's just really just blowing your mind. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about the Grand Canyon. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: be little the experienced by saying it's like the Grand Canyon,
Speaker 1: because like you just said, I mean, it's it's beyond
Speaker 1: you know, our understandings. And you see something like that,
Speaker 1: you see the Earth from a distance like that, and
Speaker 1: you see the weather paddings patterns going on, you must
Speaker 1: be like, oh my god, this this thing is beautiful.
Speaker 1: And that's why astronauts like fall in love they go
Speaker 1: gaga over Earth and just start thinking, oh, we're all one.
Speaker 1: But you know, just on the smaller scale, I think
Speaker 1: about the Grand Canyon. You look at it and it's
Speaker 1: if it's something that you've never seen before, geological structure
Speaker 1: like that, then all of a sudden you have a
Speaker 1: completely different understanding of the earth underneath your feet, and
Speaker 1: and you start to sort of reconsider the way. At
Speaker 1: least that was my experience being there is understand um
Speaker 1: humanity a little bit different, or even you just give
Speaker 1: you a historical perspective. Yeah, like I think even it's
Speaker 1: like take city dwellers for instance. I think any even, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we can get a slice of that cake
Speaker 1: just by going suddenly finding going out to a a
Speaker 1: rural setting or you know, going out into a some
Speaker 1: sort of national park environment and suddenly you're just an
Speaker 1: entirely different environment and you can be like, whoa, look
Speaker 1: at this, there's nature happening all around me, and I've
Speaker 1: you know, it's and you can suddenly feel this oneness
Speaker 1: with with this the biodiversity in the system that's branching
Speaker 1: out all around you. Yeah. I also think too about
Speaker 1: how and you and I had talked about this before,
Speaker 1: about how sometimes you can come back from space and
Speaker 1: you don't have that you fork feeling. In fact, you
Speaker 1: feel anxious and fearful. Yeah. The studies by NASA, ESA, etcetera.
Speaker 1: They also recognized that some people came back feeling a
Speaker 1: little freaked out by the whole experience. Yeah, and it
Speaker 1: kind of makes me think of LSD and tripping. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you hear. It's you know, it's kind of like you
Speaker 1: have the classic stories, especially the ones that were were
Speaker 1: that showed up in different films aimed at young people
Speaker 1: in the sixties, where people freak out and you know,
Speaker 1: try and force themselves through a keyhole and jump out
Speaker 1: of a window, and then you have appeal themselves because
Speaker 1: they think they're an orange Oh yeah, yeah, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. And then the other sort of traditional, you know,
Speaker 1: hippie sort of thing where people you know, take this
Speaker 1: and then feel totally in touch with the universe. Right
Speaker 1: the doors of perception fly open and you're suddenly your
Speaker 1: terence from kinda yeah, and you're you're communing with aliens
Speaker 1: and so on and so forth. Now speaking of aliens, um,
Speaker 1: I mean that's the thing. Sometimes you come back from
Speaker 1: from from space, then you experienced the overview effect and
Speaker 1: you you found what kind of sounds like a religion, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: sometimes you do, and perhaps that's the hinky part of it,
Speaker 1: right yeah, tell us about about this, all right. So
Speaker 1: you come back and your name is Edgar Mitchell, and
Speaker 1: you had that experience that we talked about um where
Speaker 1: he was basically saying he felt this oneness and you
Speaker 1: feel like you've got to do something about it, and
Speaker 1: so you start noetic science, or what it would be
Speaker 1: the seeds for noetic science, which I think is the
Speaker 1: Institute of Noetic Sciences, I believe, and you really try
Speaker 1: to take that philosophy, that overwhelming feeling that we all
Speaker 1: are part of one system and apply it to human
Speaker 1: consciousness by using science. So it's interesting. It's a great proposition.
Speaker 1: I mean, who wouldn't want us to all become better
Speaker 1: human beings through Yeah. The problem is I think that
Speaker 1: you know, I know, is that some of the some
Speaker 1: of the studies that they're carrying out you have to
Speaker 1: be a little bit skeptical about. And that would be
Speaker 1: like healing three distances for instance. So if you know
Speaker 1: I've got cancer and I've got a group of Buddhist
Speaker 1: monks praying for me on the other side of the ocean, Um,
Speaker 1: that might somehow affect my ability to heal myself. Well
Speaker 1: it's a little bit of a specious argument, you know.
Speaker 1: It's Um that's where you kind of look at the
Speaker 1: message and you think, Okay, I love the message, but
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that we can actually translate this into
Speaker 1: stuff that's going to be practical for us, right or
Speaker 1: certainly if it's a even if it's a you know,
Speaker 1: a great practical message, it doesn't mean we necessarily need
Speaker 1: to prop it up with science. I mean science. I
Speaker 1: mean it's when things are kind of like of a
Speaker 1: spiritual religious nature. I'm more of the mindset like, don't
Speaker 1: try and prove that with science. I mean, you've it's
Speaker 1: its own thing, right, Yeah, to embrace it for what
Speaker 1: it is and just say you know what it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, not that it was a personal experience mistake,
Speaker 1: though I'm totally fine with with scientific explorations of religious claims.
Speaker 1: That's totally valid. Yeah. And I think you and I
Speaker 1: discuss this before, to you that it seems like this
Speaker 1: is such a personal perspective that it's hard to create
Speaker 1: something so personal when through one one's own filter and
Speaker 1: apply it in a universal way. But you know, I
Speaker 1: think that it's really interesting what they're trying to explore
Speaker 1: with this. And in fact, Andy Newburgh, he's a neuroscientist
Speaker 1: and he's got some experience in space medicine. He's hoping
Speaker 1: to find out whether there is an actual psychological phenomenon
Speaker 1: by scanning the brain pre impost space travel. So I
Speaker 1: don't I haven't been able to find any follow up
Speaker 1: information on that whether or not he's been successful in
Speaker 1: doing so, but I think that's the first line of
Speaker 1: trying to apply some science to it to see what
Speaker 1: is actually happening in the brain. Well, it seems it
Speaker 1: seems perfectly valid because we've discussed before how like taking
Speaker 1: having a year of piano lessons can can change your brain.
Speaker 1: You know, So if piano lessons can can change your brain,
Speaker 1: which and I took piano lessons and I remember very
Speaker 1: little of it, I imagine something as memorable as a
Speaker 1: trip into orbit would would rearrange your thinking a bit.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, change you forever. Um. And then do you
Speaker 1: also have the Overview Effect Institute and they actually want
Speaker 1: to try to reproduce this at a level that everybody
Speaker 1: could experience it. So um, they're kind of thinking about
Speaker 1: it as some some sort of video iPod like device
Speaker 1: that could deliver a dose of overview effect and let
Speaker 1: everyone experience that euphoria. So just like it would be
Speaker 1: kind of like watching two thousand one on Imax or
Speaker 1: something that's their whole thing perhaps, or trying to maybe
Speaker 1: recreate that that sense of wonder and that sort of again,
Speaker 1: that that ocean neck feeling of oneness, which I would
Speaker 1: sign up for that. Yeah, yeah, you couldn't douce that
Speaker 1: this presentation is brought to you by Intel sponsors of tomorrow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't help. But wonder if if we reach the
Speaker 1: point where where we decide, yeah, it's sending people into
Speaker 1: space totally changes the way you look at the world,
Speaker 1: makes you a more spiritual person or something. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: might we reached the point where we're taking criminals and
Speaker 1: miscreans and instead of sending them into prisons or even
Speaker 1: like you know, terrestrial rehabilitation programs, we just start shooting
Speaker 1: them into space. I mean not I mean men bringing
Speaker 1: them back, that's key, but but yeah, shooting them up
Speaker 1: on Virgin galactic you know, um, you know, eight at
Speaker 1: a time, they all come back and they're instantly enlightened.
Speaker 1: So I don't think that will happen, but it's a
Speaker 1: beautiful idea. Did you talk to Richard Branson's guy about that?
Speaker 1: I did not. I should have asked him if this
Speaker 1: is I wish I thought to I could be like, hey,
Speaker 1: are there any plans to uh to fill any of
Speaker 1: these early flights up with with murderers and they would
Speaker 1: probably said no, probably not. I think they'd have to
Speaker 1: change their name too. I don't know. Virgin galactic miscreants. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I because I imagine the you know, the early
Speaker 1: flights are all going to be you know, celebrities and
Speaker 1: you know, self made millionaires and billionaires, so they're probably
Speaker 1: not gonna want to sit next to people that are
Speaker 1: in chains. Well, so that's kind of not fair. Do
Speaker 1: they do they all get to be shot up into
Speaker 1: space and then become enlightened? Is that? Is that what
Speaker 1: we're I'm hoping, like, I'm really you know, they don't.
Speaker 1: They don't release the info about who has has purchased
Speaker 1: tickets unless the person who has purchased the ticket or
Speaker 1: reserved the tickets is actually outspoken about it. And I
Speaker 1: really am looking forward to the first um uh rapper
Speaker 1: hip hop artist that goes into space, experiences the overview effect,
Speaker 1: and then comes back and shares that with the world
Speaker 1: through music. That's gonna be amazing. That's gonna be the
Speaker 1: best rapping. Yeah, I'm really hoping. It's ludicrous. So you're
Speaker 1: listening book that flight? Man? That's right? Man? Okay, So
Speaker 1: do we have any listener mail? Seems like our inbox
Speaker 1: has been busy lately. Yes, I received a cool email
Speaker 1: from a listener by the name of Ann, and she
Speaker 1: had a few thoughts about our our our podcast, Our
Speaker 1: Creatures Are Sleeping, which dealt with everything from unihmistteric sleep
Speaker 1: to what our cats are are doing when they're laying
Speaker 1: there in funny shapes and uh and she pointed pointed out.
Speaker 1: She said, quote, h if you haven't checked out, Mike
Speaker 1: bro Brickly is um interview on NPR, and she gave
Speaker 1: a link. He has rapid eye movement behavior disorder and
Speaker 1: once ran out of a second story window of a
Speaker 1: hotel while asleep. He's also a great comedian and just
Speaker 1: wrote a book called Sleepwalk to Me and other painfully
Speaker 1: true stories. And I don't know, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've listened to Mike Prickly any He's got a awful Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it's comedy gold, but it's awful. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: worth he's worth looking up. He also has been featured
Speaker 1: on the Moth podcast, which is like storytelling, you know,
Speaker 1: situations and uh and and I think also in this
Speaker 1: American Life but but yeah, he suffers from this really
Speaker 1: kind of horrible sleep um disturbance and uh and has
Speaker 1: a humorous outlook on it even though he's doing things
Speaker 1: like leaping through glass windows and having to explain to
Speaker 1: hotel clerks that he's quote like the Hulk, and then
Speaker 1: then getting checked into the hospital. But but I found
Speaker 1: that amusing, and so I think and for bringing that
Speaker 1: to our attention. Also received some cool thoughts about our
Speaker 1: Inside Out People podcasts. When we discussed uh aversion yeah
Speaker 1: and um, we had a listener by the name of
Speaker 1: Keith who pointed out that there's a Mythbufters episode on
Speaker 1: differential pressure and diving suits. So that's where checking out
Speaker 1: if you want a little more UH things or people
Speaker 1: possibly but not really turning inside out. And and we
Speaker 1: also discussed cartoons, right and how I was a little
Speaker 1: shocked that there were so many like children's cartoons where
Speaker 1: people um or animals turn inside out. Yeah, where your
Speaker 1: fear of being turned inside out was manifested. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: we had a listener by the name of Brad who
Speaker 1: who pointed out on our Facebook page that in SpongeBob
Speaker 1: square Pants there is a character named squid Word and
Speaker 1: he becomes turned in inside out at one point. And
Speaker 1: the interesting thing about this is the creator of SpongeBob
Speaker 1: is he has a background in marine biology, so it
Speaker 1: makes total sense that that would pop up at some
Speaker 1: point during that shows a long run, because the thing
Speaker 1: is we discussed in the podcast, things that live in
Speaker 1: the ocean are just always averting themselves, like cucumbers who
Speaker 1: have nine d or no like a thousand high qu
Speaker 1: dedicated to them. Yes, in Japanese culture, sharks that vomit
Speaker 1: up their stomach like a like somebody turning their pocket
Speaker 1: inside out to get a little rid of limp. So anyway,
Speaker 1: if you want to point anything out to us on
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter, you can find us at both places
Speaker 1: as Blow the Mind and speaking of sea creatures, we
Speaker 1: are still getting our sea legs as a podcast as
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow your Mind, So please share your thoughts
Speaker 1: with us. Let us know what you like, what you
Speaker 1: don't like. We'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 1: email us at blow the Mind at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com For more on this and thousands of other topics.
Speaker 1: Visit how stuff works dot com. To learn more about
Speaker 1: the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper
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