The Overview Effect

Awe and Self-Transcendent Experience in Space Flight

March 2016

Viewing the Earth from space has often prompted astronauts to report overwhelming emotion and feelings of identification with humankind and the planet as a whole. In this article, we explore this experience, known as the “overview effect.” We examine astronaut accounts of the overview effect and suggest existing psychological constructs, such as awe and self-transcendent experience, that might contribute to a psychological understanding of this experience. We argue that the overview effect suggests directions for future research on altered states of consciousness in new contexts, with potential implications for better understanding well-being in isolated, confined, extreme (ICE) environments such as space flight.

Published in the March 2016 issue of Psychology of Consciousness by the American Psychological Association.

Mentioned:
Document hosted at:
🡢 https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/cns-cns0000086.pdf

The Overview Effect

David Yaden

https://www.organism.earth/library/docs/david-yaden/headshot-square.webp

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