33. EDGAR MITCHELL: A global consciousness
Edgar Mitchell (1930-) was the pilot of Apollo 14 and the sixth man to walk on the moon in 1971. On his journey back into Earth orbit, Mitchell had a profound out-of-body experience where he says he became aware of a universal consciousness. Since then he has immersed himself in the study of noetic science and channeling the power of the mind. He also has controversial views on UFOs, claiming that aliens have visited Earth and there has been a massive government cover-up to deny their existence.
- Thanks to Atanas who submitted this quote on the Facebook page. It was included in a great collection of space quotes.
- Mitchell was featured in the documentary In The Shadow of the Moon which focuses on the US Apollo missions. It’s an absolute awesome (yes, it is actually awe-inspiring) film and I highly recommend it. Go watch it already.
- I realise that if the world leaders were actually standing on the moon without protection, their heads would be exploding Total Recall-style. I thought putting them in spacesuits would take some of the focus away from the immediate message of the quote.
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I love the ones that talk about global unity, consciousness, and awareness- more of them!
This is so true, I try to think like this all the time
If you’re interested here’s a link to Phil Plait discussing what happens to a human body exposed to space which doesn’t include exploding heads: http://youtu.be/zIDgfs7AlOY
There’s a more directly relevant article knocking about on the web somewhere but I haven’t been able to find it.
I think controversial might be a bit kind about his UFO views as that gives a lot of weight to something notable for it’s lack of proof and it’s much the same way creationists use the word when talking about evolution.
Reading about his noetic theories (they don’t appear to contain much science) I notice he was heavily invested in the paranormal from well before he went into space.
Cool video thanks Rob, always appreciate the Bad Astronomer’s work. Is noetic science actually a recognised branch of science or is it psuedo-science?
Sad to say, these are very much fringe ideas (to use a kind phrasing) and completely disconnected from real evidence-based science. It seems Mr. Mitchell could definitely use a firmer grasp on reality, though this particular quote still makes for a good comic and I can agree with his views on politics as presented here.
It’s definitely pseudoscience. They’re trying to objectively study subjective experiences; that’s not science, it’s bunk. Take them about as seriously as you would a homeopath, a psychic, or Deepak Chopra…that is, don’t take them seriously at all.
Dear Adam & Nick,
I write from a land that invented the ZERO, the Decimal, measurement of Time, Religions, Yoga & most of what makes life – even today. A land that documented the science of astrology, kaamsutra, vastu shastra, artha shastra, surgery & before everything Spirituality (Rituals of the Spirit)
The world is a perception & it’s fascinating to see you being baffled by your conscious mind (an aspect of your soul that has lived many lives before).
Science is about the atom, the arrangement of atoms as things & matter while treating the soul as a concept since nobody has seen one. But then it is clueless about honor, love, integrity, hope, faith, commitment & all those things that matter most in life. But the ATOM, who ever has really seen one ?
Forget Chopra. You have just about 23000 days on this planet. Don’t waste it drifting in the ocean of ignorance. Discard that delusional identity you derive from the material world, your possessions, your perceptions & derive a star class id that stems from your spirit to discover your innate ability of eventuating amazing experiences by actualizing aspirational offerings to WOW the world, which in essence is the fine art of you BEING HUMAN.
It’s ONE World as Gavin so beautifully illustrates. It’s ONE Life. Live it well.
“I write from a land that invented the ZERO, the Decimal, measurement of Time, Religions, Yoga [...]”
Good job, good job, good job, why would you invent something like that, and okay-if-you-like-stretching, respectively.
“A land that documented the science of astrology, kaamsutra, vastu shastra, artha shastra, surgery & before everything Spirituality (Rituals of the Spirit)”
A pity that every one of those except surgery is pseudoscience, though.
“Science is about the atom, the arrangement of atoms as things & matter while treating the soul as a concept since nobody has seen one. But then it is clueless about honor, love, integrity, hope, faith, commitment & all those things that matter most in life.”
No, science is about figuring out how the world works, in a testable reproducible manner. The only things that are outside science are those that don’t interact with the observable universe – and since anything that fits that description has no effect on us by definition, it’s difficult to care about.
To quote Tim Minchin:
“Science adjusts it’s beliefs based on what’s observed
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved.
If you show me
That, say, homeopathy works,
Then I will change my mind
I’ll spin on a fucking dime
I’ll be embarrassed as hell,
But I will run through the streets yelling
It’s a miracle! Take physics and bin it!
Water has memory!
And while it’s memory of a long lost drop of onion juice is Infinite
It somehow forgets all the poo it’s had in it!”
Nick I think you give too much credit to Tim Minchin who is pretty much an arrogant and nihilistic douche and this coming from the guy who thoroughly enjoyed Storm, which you quoted, but on watching his other works was unimpressed by how he merely emulates what Carlin and other did better. Science is beautiful and engrossing but religion, though backed by nothing but fancy, is something that must be admired for its effectiveness at providing hope for those in despair and joy with its power for bringing folks together with something in common. Though most of what Mark wrote is pseudo-religious-pseudo-science crap, I suggest you stop watching Tim and explore these more esoteric facets of life. They may not be true but merely knowing them and wondering about them is nice. Also Hinduism is not actually a religion like most. Its mostly just a compilation of mythos and works on afterlife, science and decent living. What the books say (Bhagavad Gita and the Vedas) are very enlightening and give good instructions on living decent lives. In fact they sound more like what Greek philosophy than religious diktat. Please read them if you can.
//”religion, though backed by nothing but fancy, is something that must be admired for its effectiveness at providing hope for those in despair and joy with its power for bringing folks together with something in common”//
The same could be said for all sorts of things, including naziism and Stalinism. Should we admire ANY system that can cause such effects? The outcomes you describe are not exclusive to religion. In fact religion often has the opposite effect, causing despair and division.. Yes, it would be great if religions were as they all claim to be… but they are not
I enjoy the fact that this is a comic about unity and people are arguing about things.
Well said Mark. Too many people seem to believe science is purely material/physical and jump on the band wagon of debunking, whereas true science investigates thoroughly. Have they never looked at quantum physics, everything is energy, nothing is really solid in the generally accepted sense of the word. Energy cannot be destroyed (even ‘orthodox’ science agrees this) and anyone who properly studies genuine psychic/mediumistic evidence, as many open minded scientists past and present have, recognises that consciosness cannot be destroyed.
Don’t ‘knock’ unless you’ve really investigated, as a friend says, ‘to condemn without investigation is the sign of ignorance and a closed mind.’
The difference between science and pseudo-science is perspective. One explains the matter another explains the mind, we should just leave them for themselves and not try to mix the two. I hope some day we’ll know why we’re here and what this universe is all about. Until then, hold your judgement horses
Pseudoscience is a set of claims or beliefs that is presented as scientific, but actually fails to follow any rigorous scientific methods. I can’t say it any better than Tim Minchin, so i’ll just tell you to go read what Nick Johnson wrote above.
By the way Gav, a quote from Tim Minchin would make a great poster!
Fantastic comic, and great quote. One question. Is Obama wearing a yarmulke?
Ha, no that white line is there just to make clear the shape of his head
This is excellent! Absolutely wonderful!
Once again, awesome work, Gav! I really want a print of this one!
One of my favorites that you’ve drawn. You are very talented.
Great comic today, this one definitely got to me! I love the quote, and the last panel is just great. Keep it up!
Well, it’s official: this is my favorite webcomic of all the 50+ webcomics I follow and I’ll likely be buying absurd numbers of posters when they finally become available.
Woohoo! Prints coming soon, still waiting on a few different samples. Sorry everyone!
Love that last panel!!!
just FYI, it’s president hu. jintao is his given name.
Fixed. Thanks for letting me know.
Plus, this way you can make hilarious “Hu’s leading China?” jokes.
Wow. Dat panel with Earth in the reflection of the astronauts helmet, and his face in tears behind it. I’m blown away! Such a powerful image.
I just love these ….
trying to get one of the free posters printed
Amazing!!! Thank you so much for this moment!
Ok, how do I bags this one for when you finally print them? This is one for the studio wall. Brilliant.
The posters will be print-on-demand so supply shouldn’t be a problem Paul.
great job gavin. i have a degree in politics and I can really get behind this sentiment. btw, cant wait for the prints to become available. keep up the good work
I’ve been reading Zen Pencils since you started and love it. This is the first comment I’ve left though, because this one is my favorite so far. I’m waiting on those prints, too!
Rose
Thanks for the comment Rose (finally!)
This is just lovely. Wonderful combination of quote and art. (I work for NASA and I look forward to getting a print for my office!)
Sweet, a NASA employee! Thanks Sarah
Yes, yes, yes. A thousand times yes. Truly awesome, sir. Truly awesome.
This is one of your best Gav. I really like the way you’ve drawn the astronaut, with the short, kinda wobbly strokes. Love it.
Great one! The only thing that’s a little bit disturbing is, that Afghanistan seems to use the german flag. Greetings!
Absolutely wonderful. I wish everyone would realize how tiny our existence is, and then maybe we could begin fixing our only home. Thanks for making these wonderful illustrations.
This one reminded me of the famous ‘Pale Blue dot’ quote. How about a mini series on that one?
“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
? Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Yeah, that one’s on my ‘to do’ list, thanks
Awesome, Gav! Always look forward to your work. Now, more than ever!
I just found your site today, and have read through all of the old ones. By far, this one is one of my favorites, especially because I plan to be an astronaut some day soon.
Amazing!
This comic is great. A beautiful visual representation of great thoughts by a great man. But all i want to say is…. even if the guys didn’t wear helmets, their heads wouldn’t actually explode since the vessels and surrounding tissue are too strong. Instead their nose, ears and eye capillaries would burst and their body would be slightly puffed up but they would survive for as long as their breath would hold. They wouldn’t even freeze.
…And that’s how I assassinated all the world’s great leaders….
So, you’re saying we should assassinate all politicians by teleporting them to, and suffocating them on, the moon?
OK.
At first glance, that sounds horrific. Eventually though, the advancements required to achieve such a goal would benefit all mankind.
In this case, the means justify the ends.
Very nice comic and very nice message.
I never really understood how someone can claim a piece a land(and now I’m a hypocrite because I own land in Suriname) because it was there before you and will be there long after you. How can you have the right to claim it.
“Well, you see, Aborigines don’t own the land.They belong to it. It’s like their mother. See those rocks? Been standing there for 600 million years. Still be there when you and I are gone. So arguing over who owns them is like two fleas arguing over who owns the dog they live on.” ~Michael J. “Crocodile” Dundee
AMEN! This has long been among my favorites. This was shared amongst all people of earth when those astonishing photos came back from Apollo 8, and all too quickly forgotten. I was 15 when this happened, and sat thunderstruck in front of the TV on that Christmas Eve, taking in those photos of the earth. Thanks. Edgar nailed it, and you represented the emotion perfectly.
Tom
P.S. The Apollo 8 capsule is on display in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, for anyone who would care to stand in front of it and recall the moment.
Near perfect!
If there was just an additional panel at the end that would show all those asshole leaders of the world suffocating and their eyes bursting because of the vacuum, this comic would absolutely have made my day!
I sincerely hope that one day we will overcome the need for leaders and governments and will live all together in an open nonviolent society. As long as we have highly concentrated power centers, they will always attract psychopaths and megalomaniacs, and how long will we continue hoping that those bastards will do our bidding?
And they all die
An imaginative way of expressing anger.. People should such innovative ways to express their opinions/oppositions rather than simply resorting to violent acts..! Kudos
You probably don’t read comments this far back, but I believe you mean he had an “out-of-body” experience, not an “outer-body” experience.
Thanks Colin, fixed it
Well, at least the space suit guy didn’t come after Doctor Who. That would’ve been *bad*.
/ba dum bum bssh?
Obama can breath in space
WHAT? We are supposed to think he is clever / smart for saying this?
Tax payers paid billions to send this twat to the moon and he makes such a obvious statement as this…
I would’ve liked to have seen the panel where all the world leaders heads exploded…
The moral of this story is that if you become a political leader you can survive in space unaided.
And then they all died of asphyxiation.
I’m such a sap. This one brought tears to my eyes.
