People who have seen Earth from space report a “cognitive shift in awareness.” Space philosopher, Frank White, calls this “the overview effect.” It is often experienced as a profound feeling of awe and interconnection, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.
It’s important to explore and understand the mental health benefits of space flight not only to extend our knowledge of how to improve psychological well-being on space missions, but also to see if we can use positive aspects of this experience back on Earth.
My psychology doctoral research explored how the overview effect might have therapeutic value—and I interviewed seven retired NASA astronauts.
I asked them if their experience had enhanced their personal growth and promoted psychological well-being. I also asked them if they had used their experience to deal with the challenges of daily life back on Earth.
Mind Expanding
All the participants said the experience was awe inspiring and helped them form a more significant, lasting and positive emotional attachment with their home planet.
The analysis revealed that the participants clustered into two groups based on the intensity of the changes they experienced in terms of both attitude and behavior. It appears that distance made the heart grow fonder—that is to say, the physical separation from “mother Earth” helped them appreciate the beauty of life and created a stronger bond to the planet.
Past research has suggested that being apart from Earth can cause separation anxiety, also known as “break-off phenomenon.” However, this state might also solidify the astronauts’ attachment and dependence to Earth. From the vantage point of space, divisions and boundaries could not be seen and were pointless. Earth was seen as a “living bio-sphere” and as a “fragile oasis” harboring and cocooning life in unlikely circumstances in the void of space.
The astronauts orbited earth 16 times every 24 hours and became more familiar with its topography and landscape. Some of the participants commented how they were initially drawn to man-made structures such as bridges, roads, harbors, and cities at night. But Earth’s raw beauty really came alive during daylight. Once they had bypassed the “superficial” features of the planet, they were overwhelmed by how fragile and alone Earth looked in space. They were also shocked by the sight of humankind’s impact on the planet, such as deforestation and pollution.
