Vision of the Mortal Earth
Astronauts have the peculiar tendency to become active environmentalists upon their return to Terra. This transformation is attributed to the Overview Effect, a radical shift in perspective occasioned by viewing a suddenly finite earth from a small metal pod hanging in the black void of space. It is like a reversal of that Christian longing to fly away off-world; the desire for transcendence, for escape, for release from earthly cares, as when standing upon the cold stone floor of a church transfixed by the synthetic transcendence of church architecture, all those arrows pointing up, promising an unearthly heaven to those weary of the fallen earth. In the experience of so many astronauts it is precisely heavenly transcendence that gets turned inside out; the astronaut has achieved the old dream of the church, transcended earth in a literal sense, but now curiously, suffers a kind of mental breakdown, a conversion—in the true sense of that word—in which the old fantasies of the sky-cult blow away like so much smog and are replaced by a mind-smoking vision of the mortal earth—in all of its fragility and finitude. William Shatner’s 2021 space flight is the most famous example of this conversion: “I hope I never recover from this” he said, weeping. One might call this a revelation of immanence; it is absolutely spiritual, not that different than Buddhist awakening, and is probably the only kind of revelation capable of saving us from ourselves.
