edgar-mitchell

82
The Way of the Explorer
explanation. I knew there was something worthy of serious investigation if
the issue was approached in a manner different from the traditional. I
wanted to become intimate with the nature behind the phenomenon of
human mental functioning—not neurophysiology necessarily, but rather
the overall system that permitted us to evolve as we have. The question of
how thought evolved seemed a more basic question than even how life
itself evolved, though scientific tradition suggested otherwise. The reason
for my brash certainty was simply founded: If the phenomenon of
psychokinesis, as reported in the world’s religious and mystical literature,
had any validity at all, then the scientific doctrine called epiphenomenalism
was a flawed concept.
Epiphenomenalism is the understanding that consciousness is merely a
byproduct of physiological process; that it is secondary. Consciousness has
no power to influence physiological processes, because it is the result of
the evolution of our corporeal bodies. Epiphenomenalism is also mainstream
scientific dogma. By this way of thinking, the mind cannot assume
control over the machine, or the physical universe, though my experience
on the way home from the moon seemed to suggest otherwise. There had
to be some relationship between the intuitive experience of epiphany and
the curious results obtained from the various phenomena being studied in
parapsychology. Spread out before me was the vast internal landscape of a
largely unexplored world.
The term epiphany, in the connotation of an intuitive insight, is certainly
descriptive of what I experienced, as is the Greek word metanoia,
which implies a change in thinking, even a new direction. But neither
word individually, nor together, adequately describes the event itself. They
seemed to surround the meaning without actually touching it. But there
were other questions on my mind as well. I wanted to know what caused it
to happen in the first place, what its place was in the vast scheme of things.
Of course I wanted to know if others had similar experiences.
The latter question would take a decade to answer, and even then it
would be answered rather indirectly. Engineers and test pilots have never
been noted for introspection and spontaneous eloquent expression, so a
direct approach would have been fruitless even had I known the right
questions to ask. But it’s significant that many of the men pioneering spaceflight
began to express openly a more subtle side to their personalities
after returning home. Several astronauts, notably Jim Irwin and Charlie
Duke, immersed themselves in their religious callings; Alan Bean and Alexii
Lenov, a cosmonaut, both found expression through art. Rusty Schweickhart
spent a major portion of his subsequent career pursuing environmental
concerns, often speaking eloquently on subjects closely related to my own
interests. Al Worden published a book of poetry. I’ve found it interesting
that all these Americans, with the exception of Worden, were lunar module
pilots, which gave them a bit more latitude for contemplation on their