It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Edgar Mitchell
Edgar Dean Mitchell, Sc.D. (born September 17, 1930) is an American pilot, retired Captain in the United States Navy and NASA astronaut. As the lunar module pilot of Apollo 14, he spent nine hours working on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro Highlands region, making him the sixth person to walk on the Moon.
Mitchell was born in Hereford, Texas.[1] He was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. He was also a member of DeMolay International and has been inducted into its Hall of Fame.
Mitchell earned a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial management from Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1952.[1] The following year he joined the U.S. Navy, where he trained as a pilot and flew off the aircraft carriers USS Bon Homme Richard and USS Ticonderoga. He later qualified as a research pilot and taught at the Navy's research pilot school. While on active duty in the Navy, he earned a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and a Doctor of Science degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1] He currently resides in suburban West Palm Beach, Florida.
Mitchell is a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, and carried one of the order's badges to the Moon; it is now kept at his home chapter of Kappa Sigma at Carnegie Mellon University.
Nasa Career
Mitchell was selected to be an astronaut in 1966 and was seconded from the Navy to NASA. He was designated as backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 10, and flew as lunar module pilot on Apollo 14, where he spent nine hours working on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro Highlands region, making him the sixth person to walk on the Moon.
Apollo 14 was Mitchell's only spaceflight. He remained with NASA until 1972, when he retired from the Navy.
An Astronaut's Journey:
Edgar Mitchell Explores Enlightenment
Dr. Edgar Mitchell is a graduate of MIT with a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics. His career as a scientist, test pilot, naval officer, astronaut, author, lecturer, and founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, an organization which sponsors research into the nature of consciousness, has been extraordinary. Copies of Dr. Mitchell's book, The Way of the Explorer may be purchased at the Exploring Enlightenment Conference in July in Sunnyvale, where he will be speaking.
"It was all there suspended in the cosmos on that fragile little sphere. What I experienced was a grand epiphany accompanied by exhilaration, an event I would later refer to in terms that could not be more foreign to my upbringing in west Texas, and later, New Mexico. From that moment on, my life would take a radically different course.
"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 ecstasy of unity.... I perceived the universe as in some way conscious. The thought was so large it seemed inexpressible, and to a large degree it still is."
I spoke recently with Apollo 14 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, and we discussed his peak experience in space and how it still affects him 33 years later. He reports that what he experienced was nothing short of the magnificence of the universe, which was truly overwhelming.—Paula Bailey
Paula Bailey: Please tell us about your own "transformation."
Edgar Mitchell: I realized that the molecules of my body and my partners, and the molecules of the spacecraft were prototyped in some ancient generation of stars. And suddenly, instead of being an intellectual experience, it was an emotional experience, followed with an ecstasy! So my question was: Wow! What kind of a brain/body is this that causes this sort of experience?
How did you answer that question?
It was only after I came back to earth and started researching the Mystical Literature that I realized that the experience that I was having all the way back home had a name. It's called Samadhi in the ancient Sanskrit—the Samadhi experience. That's pretty wild!
Was your experience different from that of other astronauts?
Many of my compatriots, like Charlie Duke and Jim Irwin in particular, had very much the same experience, but they described it as looking on the face of God, which is a traditional, mystical or religious way of expressing such experiences. Others came back and began to express their sense of personal amazement and emotion through creativity—painting and poetry, for example.
When was the last time "man" went to the moon?
If it was the americans in '72, how come we haven't been there since? Or more frequently?
What other countries besides the US have been there?
1972.
The reason? Very simple: lack of money. Congress cut NASA's funding after the sixth lunar landing in 1972 because the public seemed to have lost interest in the Moon and the "space race" with the Soviet Union had been won. It was tragically bad timing, because Apollo 17 in 1972 was the _first_ Apollo voyage to have a trained scientist, Harrison Schmitt, on board, and was supposed to be the first of three scientific expeditions.
More was learned about the Moon and its history in that voyage than in the previous 5 put together, and much more would have been learned if the two next voyages had been funded. Instead the US space program was redirected into the boondoggle of the shuttle and space station programs, neither of which has made much contribution to science.
No other countries have sent manned expeditions to the Moon. China, Japan, and India currently have unmanned missions there.
Views on UFOs
Mitchell has publicly expressed his opinions that he is "90 percent sure that many of the thousands of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, recorded since the 1940s, belong to visitors from other planets".[9] Dateline NBC conducted an interview with Mitchell on April 19, 1996, during which he discussed meeting with officials from three countries who claimed to have had personal encounters with extraterrestrials. He offered his opinion that the evidence for such "alien" contact was "very strong" and "classified" by governments, who were covering up visitations and the existence of alien beings' bodies in places such as Roswell, New Mexico. He further claimed that UFOs had provided "sonic engineering secrets" that were helpful to the U.S. government. Mitchell's book, The Way of the Explorer, discusses his journey into mysticism and space.[10]
In 2004 he told the St. Petersburg Times that a "cabal of insiders" in the U.S. government were studying recovered alien bodies, and that this group had stopped briefing U.S. Presidents after John F. Kennedy.[11] He said, "We all know that UFOs are real; now the question is where they come from."[12]
On July 23, 2008 Edgar Mitchell was interviewed on Kerrang Radio by Nick Margerrison. Mitchell claimed the Roswell crash was real and that aliens have contacted humans several times, but that governments have hidden the truth for 60 years, stating: "I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet, and the UFO phenomenon is real."
In 1971, Navy Captain Dr. Edgar Dean Mitchell traveled on the Apollo 14 mission and became the sixth person to walk on the Moon. Instead of returning to Earth with moon rocks, Dr. Mitchell brought back a message of unity. While looking at the blue planet spinning outside his spacecraft window he experienced a transformative awakening and had a sense of the interconnectedness of all things.
Although Dr. Mitchell has done what most of us only dream of doing – traveling in outer space – it is on Earth where he does his most important work. He followed his outer space samadhi by devoting himself to exploring the mind and the scientific and transcendental potential for a sustainable future on Earth.
In 1972, after retiring from NASA, Dr. Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences to facilitate research on the relationship between consciousness and cosmology. Over the past 35 years he has lectured and written about intuition, quantum physics, and the belief that a “learning, self-organizing principle” underlies all creation. He examines these themes in his book The Way of the Explorer, as well as in numerous essays and thoughts published on his website
The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo Astronaut's Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds, Revised Edition (Paperback)
From Publishers Weekly
Among authors trying to bridge the gap between science and spirit, former astronaut Mitchell brings unique credentials. Originally scheduled for the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, Mitchell, as told in this smooth blend of autobiography and exegesis, journeyed to the Moon in 1971 (and generated great controversy over ESP experiments he conducted on the flight). As he gazed on Earth, surrounded by blackness and an unfathomable number of stars, he experienced "an overwhelming sense of universal connectedness" that was to change his life. Within a few years, he had left NASA and founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, aimed at the systematic study of the nature of consciousness. At the institute, he came to some fascinating conclusions, detailed here and based on principles of resonance, regarding a possible natural explanation for psychic powers. In later years, Mitchell has developed a "dyadic" model of paired opposites-mind/matter, life/death, etc.-that he also covers here and that owes as much to quantum physics' wave/particle duality as to Taoism's yin/yang. Mitchell isn't afraid to go out on a limb; his contention that the universe "intended" to evolve to higher levels, for example, goes against mainstream Western science. He grounds his ideas in data and reason, however, making this a strong offering for those who enjoy the books of Larry Dossey, Ken Wilber and others pushing the envelope of the science/spirit paradigm. BOMC, QPB and One Spirit selections.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Samadhi (समाधि samādhi, Hindi pronunciation: [səˈmaːd̪ʱi]) is the state of consciousness induced by complete meditation. The term's etymology involves "sam" (together or integrated), "ā" (towards), and "dhā" (to get, to hold). Thus the result might be seen to be "to acquire integration or wholeness, or truth" (samāpatti). Another possible etymological analysis of "samādhi" is "samā" (even) and "dhi" (intellect), a state of total equilibrium ("samā") of a detached intellect ("dhi").
Hinduism
Samādhi is the main subject of the first part of the Yoga Sūtras called Samādhi-pada. Vyāsa, a major figure in Hinduism and one of the traditional authors of the Mahābharata, says in his commentary on verse 1.1 of the Yoga Sūtras that "yoga is samādhi."[6] This is generally interpreted to mean that samādhi is a state of complete control (samadhana) over the functions and distractions of consciousness.
Samādhi is described in different ways within Hinduism such as the state of being aware of one’s existence without thinking, in a state of undifferentiated “beingness" or as an altered state of consciousness that is characterized by bliss (ānanda) and joy (sukha). Nisargadatta Maharaj describes the state in the following manner:
When you say you sit for meditation, the first thing to be done is understand that it is not this body identification that is sitting for meditation, but this knowledge ‘I am’, this consciousness, which is sitting in meditation and is meditating on itself. When this is finally understood, then it becomes easy. When this consciousness, this conscious presence, merges in itself, the state of ‘Samadhi’ ensues. It is the conceptual feeling that I exist that disappears and merges into the beingness itself. So this conscious presence also gets merged into that knowledge, that beingness – that is ‘Samadhi’.
—[7]
The initial experience of it is enlightenment and it is the beginning of the process of meditating to attain self-realization (tapas)
An uncovered letter written by John F Kennedy to the head of the CIA shows that the president demanded to be shown highly confidential documents about UFOs 10 days before his assassination.
The secret memo is one of two letters written by JFK asking for information about the paranormal on November 12 1963, which have been released by the CIA for the first time.
Author William Lester said the CIA released the documents to him under the Freedom of Information Act after he made a request while researching his new book 'A Celebration of Freedom: JFK and the New Frontier.'
Overview effect of the astronauts is like gnosis of the self of seekers
Have you heard of the overview effect? When the astronauts first time went into the space and even though their intention was to go beyond the earth, to the moon and to the stars - yet from that outerspace when they looked back at the planet earth itself, there happened an extra ordinary thing to the observers. Looking back at the earth, experiencing this unique place created by the Mysterious Creator, there was a tremendous cognitive shift for the observers, to the astronauts which was equivalent of gnosis of self-awareness of spiritual seekers.
The term and concept were coined in 1987 by Frank White, who explored them in his book The Overview Effect - Space Exploration and Human Evolution (Houghton-Mifflin, 1987), (AIAA, 1998).
About the Film: Overview Effect
Astronauts who have seen the Earth from space have often described the ‘overview effect’ as an experience that has transformed their perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it, and enabled them to perceive it as our shared home, without boundaries between nations or species.
OVERVIEW is a short film that explores this perspective through interviews with astronauts who have experienced the overview effect. The film also feature insights from commentators and thinkers on the wider implications and importance of this understanding for humanity as a whole, and especially its relevance to how we meet the tremendous challenges facing our planet at this time. It is also a film about eco-spirituality, about our awareness of oneness of the planet, of humanity and the greater reality.
“I was flying cross-country, from the East coast to the West coast in the 1970s, and I was looking out the window. And as I was looking down at the planet, the thought came to me: anyone living in a space settlement, or living on the moon, would always have an overview. They would see things that we know, but we don’t experience. That the Earth is one system, and we’re all part of that system. And that there is a certain unity and coherence to it all. And I immediately called it the ‘Overview Effect’.” ~ Frank White
The film features:
• EDGAR MITCHELL – Apollo 14 astronaut and founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences
• RON GARAN – ISS astronaut and founder of humanitarian organisation Fragile Oasis
• NICOLE STOTT – Shuttle and ISS astronaut and member of Fragile Oasis
• JEFF HOFFMAN – Shuttle astronaut and senior lecturer at MIT
• SHANE KIMBROUGH – Shuttle/ISS astronaut and Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army
• FRANK WHITE – space theorist and author of the book ‘The Overview Effect’
• DAVID LOY- philosopher and author
• DAVID BEAVER – philosopher and co-founder of The Overview Institute
What is Samadhi and Savikalpa Samadhi
Savikalpa samadhi, the highest of spiritual states of consciousness, second only to nirvikalpa samadhi (infinite bliss). The sanskrit word Savikalpa samādhi is a state of samādhi in which one's consciousness temporarily dissolves into Brahman.
According to Great Master Paramahansa Yogananda: In this state, one lets go of the ego and becomes aware of Spirit beyond creation.
Apollo 15 - sees white objects
Capcom: You talked about something mysterious ...
Orion: O.K., Gordy, when we pitched around, I'd like to tell you about something we saw around the LM (LEM or Lunar Excursion Module). When we were coming about 30 or 40 feet out, there were a lot of objects - white things - flying by. It looked as if they were being propelled or ejected, but I'm not convinced of that.
Capcom: We copy that Charlie.
Apollo 11 - "I say that there were other spaceships!"
Apollo 11, with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin was the first Apollo flight to land on the Moon, on July 20, 1969. While Collins flew in orbit around the Moon in the command module, Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the lunar module, landing in the Sea of Tranquillity at 4:17 P.M.
According to hitherto un-confirmed reports, both Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin saw UFOs shortly after that historic landing on the Moon in Apollo 11 on 21 July 1969.
I remember hearing one of the astronauts refer to a "light" in or on a crater during the television transmission, followed by a request from mission control for further information. Nothing more was heard.
The following astonishing conversation was picked up by ham radio operators that had their own VHF receiving facilities that bypassed NASA's broadcasting outlets.
At this time, the live television broadcast was interrupted for two minutes due to a supposed "overheated camera", but the transmission below was received loud and clear by hundreds of ham radio operators.
According to Otto Binder, who was a member of the NASA space team, when the two moon-walkers, Aldrin and Armstrong were making their rounds some distance from the LEM, Armstrong clutched Aldrin's arm excitedly and exclaimed:
Armstrong: What was it? What the hell was it? That's all I want to know!"
Mission Control: What's there?... malfunction (garble) ... Mission Control calling Apollo 11...
Apollo 11: These babies were huge, sir!... Enormous!... Oh, God! You wouldn't believe it! ... I'm telling you there are other space-craft out there ... lined up on the far side of the crater edge! ... They're on the Moon watching us!
The book "Celestial Raise" by Richard Watson and ASSK [P.O. Box 35 Mt. Shasta CA. 96067 (916)-926-2316); 1987; page 147-148] records the following (continuation?) of the above remarkable dialogue of Apollo 11, which was picked up by hundreds of ham radio operators in the USA:
During the transmission of the Moon landing of Armstrong and Aldrin, who journeyed to the Moon in an American spaceship, two minutes of silence occurred in which the image and sound were interrupted. NASA insisted that this problem was the result of one of the television cameras which had overheated, thus interfering with the reception.
This unexpected problem surprised even the most qualified of viewers who were unable to explain how in such a costly project, one of the most essential elements could break down... Some time after the historic Moon landing, Christopher Craft, director of the base in Houston, made some surprising comments when he left NASA.
The contents of these comments, which is included in the conversations [below], has been corroborated by hundreds of amateur radio operators who had connected their stations to the same frequency through which the astronauts transmitted. During the two minute interruption - which was not as it seemed, NASA, Armstrong and Aldrin with Cape Kennedy, censored both image and sound. 'I say that there were other spaceships.'
Here is reproduced completely the dialogue between the American astronauts and Control Center:
Armstrong & Aldrin: Those are giant things. No, no, no - this is not an optical illusion. No one is going to believe this!
Houston (Christopher Craft): What ... what ... what? What the hell is happening? What's wrong with you?
Armstrong & Aldrin: They're here under the surface.
Houston: What's there? (muffled noise) Emission interrupted; interference control calling 'Apollo 11'.
Armstrong & Aldrin: We saw some visitors. They were here for a while, observing the instruments.
Houston: Repeat your last information!
Armstrong & Aldrin: I say that there were other spaceships. They're lined up in the other side of the crater!
Houston: Repeat, repeat!
Armstrong & Aldrin: Let us sound this orbita ... in 625 to 5 ... Automatic relay connected ... My hands are shaking so badly I can't do anything. Film it? God, if these damned cameras have picked up anything - what then?
Houston: Have you picked up anything?
Armstrong & Aldrin: I didn't have any film at hand. Three shots of the saucers or whatever they were that were ruining the film
Houston: Control, control here. Are you on your way? What is the uproar with the UFOs over?
Armstrong & Aldrin: They've landed here. There they are and they're watching us.