Astronaut Edgar Mitchell

September 17, 1930 −February 4, 2015

Our friend and colleague, Edgar Mitchell made his transition into Eternity on February 4, 2015, 45 years to the day that he orbited the moon.

In his early years, Edgar Mitchell was an enthusiastic student of the life sciences, geology and planetary studies, and earned a doctorate of science in atmospheric studies. He was involved in NASA’s important Apollo missions of space exploration and is remembered as the sixth man to walk on the moon. Astronaut Mitchell had a lifelong interest in the powers of the mind and studies of the phenomenon known as ESP, as well as so-called extraterrestrial contact scenarios.

While in space Dr. Edgar Mitchell quietly practiced remote viewing with sensitives back on earth and also had a conscious raising experience. Looking at Earth from Apollo 14, he became deeply aware of the unity of all life upon this beautiful blue-green planet −how our actions individually and collectively impact on each other and on our home, Earth −and how there is no separation of consciousness. This experience was so profound that it led to his desire to study consciousness as a phenomenon and shortly after his return he founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in Northern California.

In his post-NASA years, he sought to expand his horizons even further to ensure we can establish a new planetary community and also dedicated his time to try to abolish the use of weapons in outer space . Looking at the challenges facing the environment of Mother Earth as a unified whole, Astronaut Mitchell perceived that a new kind of teaching was needed to challenge the old ways of thinking and provide a new science of consciousness, because the traditional paradigms of learning have divided science and consciousness, keeping humanity from a higher path and limiting its aspirations of a positive future.

Through the Institute of Noetic Sciences, a new type of learning experience was instituted which is the closest equivalent to the modern concept of a transnational university for the raising of consciousness without political, religious, or economic boundaries. For the last forty years, it has had the aim of educating men and women who, by understanding the origin and content of our civilization’s heritage of exploration of new realities, achieve a new vision of the world we live in.
Astronaut Edgar Mitchell lived the dictum: ‘Change your consciousness and you will change the world.’ May his consciousness changing ideas and his legacy of a new way of learning be a guide to humankind in this time of great change.