The “Overview Effect”
On Dec. 24, 1968, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders became the first humans to witness the Earth rising above the Moon’s surface. Anders, photographing the Moon from the right-side window, caught sight of the view, and exclaimed: “Oh my God, look at that picture over there!”
“From space, I saw Earth not as a collection of nations,
but as a single entity with one destiny.”
~ Ron Garan, ISS astronaut
One of the things you see in studies of astronauts and cosmonauts is, they do come back changed. It’s a little bit similar to the near-death experience that you went through. But in space flight, it’s called the “Overview Effect”, where a lot of astronauts will say, you’re looking at a thin blue arc of an atmosphere that protects all life as we know it.
Thus, the “Overview Effect” is a shift in perspective often reported by astronauts after having seen the Earth from above for the first time. And you can’t see borders, you can’t see differences between countries or states. It seems like all of humanity is literally sort of dependent on each other. With no borders and in a vast, dark sky the earth at once seems small and insignificant as well as intricate and awe-inspiring. It is a pplanet.rofound experience that changes your perspective on the world. From space, you see how interconnected we all are and how important it is to work together.
And so after doing that kind of experience, people come back with more universal values. They care more about humanity as a species, they’re more concerned about animals and protecting the environment, and less likely to be caught up in divisions that are plaguing our world. You could say, they are “woke” astronauts, in a good way.
I believe the “Overview Effect” can serve as a prophetic voice of our time as we face existential threats to our planet.
John