CONSCIOUS UNIVERSE

Ex-astronaut Mitchell's curiosity continues

Somewhere in deep space, Ed Mitchell experienced a cosmic awakening that changed his life. "I got to look out the window a lot," he recalled about his return trip from the moon 33 years ago this week. "I had a powerful insight looking at the heavens. Suddenly, it became damn personal."
Mitchell wrote about this insight in his 1996 memoir, The Way of the Explorer: "What I experienced during that three-day trip home was nothing short of an overwhelming sense of universal connectedness. I actually felt what has been described as an ecstacy of unity." Mitchell wrote that he felt "a sense that our presence as space travelers, and the existence of the universe itself, was not accidental, but that there was an intelligent process at work. I perceived the universe as in some way conscious."