On January 31, 1971, Navy Captain Edgar Mitchell embarked on a journey into outer space that resulted in his becoming the sixth man to walk on the Moon. On his return trip, he experienced an extreme and overwhelming aspect of what is now called The Overview Effect.
Scientist, test pilot, naval officer, astronaut, entrepreneur, author and lecturer, Dr. Mitchell holds a Doctor of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT. In addition, he has received honorary doctorates in engineering from New Mexico State University, the University of Akron, and Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Mitchell has received many awards and honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the USN Distinguished Medal, and three NASA Group Achievement Awards. He was inducted to the Space Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1998. He was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
After retiring from the Navy in 1972, Dr. Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences to sponsor research into the nature of consciousness as it relates to cosmology and causality. In 1984, he co-founded the Association of Space Explorers, an international organization whose members have experienced space travel. He is the author of The Way of the Explorer (Third edition, 2006) as well as dozens of articles published in both professional and popular periodicals. He has devoted his past 35 years to studying human consciousness and psychic and paranormal phenomena as part of a search for a common ground between science and spirit.