Amid the constant barrage of doom-and-gloom we get bombarded with 24/7, the historic Artemis II lunar flyby has been like a gust of fresh air. For the first time in half a century human beings are venturing into the void of space, farther than ever before, testing systems and equipment for future missions which will permit a more permanent stay on the lunar surface.
During the live transmission, mission pilot Victor Glover delivered an improvised, albeit poetic message to the rest of humanity they left behind, during their short rendezvous with our natural satellite.
(…) I think for me, one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing.
(…) You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth. But you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos.
I think maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special, but we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you, just trust me, you are special,” he continued. “In all of this emptiness — this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe — you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist (in) together.
Glover was mentioning the Bible when he shared this personal reflection, but the first astronaut who reported this feeling of oneness was Dr. Edgar Mitchell, a Freemason and the sixth person to walk on the Moon. Mitchell equated this cosmic perspective with the contemplative state of Samadhi in Eastern religions traditions like Hinduism:
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 out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, “Look at that, you son of a bitch.”
Nowadays NASA prefers to use the less mystical term of ‘Overview effect‘ to refer to this holistic-like state, but the end result is basically the same as what practitioners have experienced for millennia after years of meditation; albeit achieved at a tiny fraction of the time, through the shock of contemplating the majesty of planet Earth enveloped by the blackness of space, and realizing its fragility at an emotional level instead of just intellectually.
I used to believe that by subjecting the elite 1% through that same experience, thanks to the advent of commercial space travel, we would be able to ensure a deeper sense of appreciation for Nature, and a need to adopt a more serious role as stewards of our planet among the richer members of society.
But now that I am older and know more about the roles of set and setting in the outcome of altered states of consciousness, I realize that the same vantage position that triggered in the crew of Artemis II a vision of Earth as an oasis in the middle of a cosmic desert, might only reinforce the sense of entitlement of the oligarchy: if this is an oasis, then we need to treat is as a resort and charge people just for the ‘privilege’ of being here—bring up the soil and air subscriptions!
Artemis II is testament of what humans can achieve when they set out lofty goals, like reaching for the Moon. May the words of Glover and his companions remind us those goals should always be aligned with the benefit for all Mankind, not just one nation or a handful of magnates.
